The 10,000 Year Reign of Overlord Ainz Ooal Gown, Part 1, Prologue
by Rippington Plasma
Summary: This is the first part of the story of the 10,000 year reign of the Overlord Ainz Ooal Gown.
1. Chapter 1

There were times when Nazarick became uncomfortably quiet for Emperor Ainz. Having little to do, having either done it himself, or now that it was being done for him by trusted subordinates, he tended to lapse into periods of boredom. But today was going to be different, for there was going to be a party in Nazarick. And not just any party, but after the annual reports of his empire, and his annual lecture to the historians of the realm, it was to be followed by the ten day long, 10,000th anniversary of his reign celebration.

The preparations for the latter had taken decades.

Once a year, his guardians, leaders in their own right throughout the New World, would gather at Nazarick to report on their achievements, how they had transformed the world and made it into a grander place in honor of Nazarick and Ainz Ooal Gown.

Demiurge would start. His very name was synonymous with science, research and education. He had founded giant universities and advanced science and technology to unparalleled heights, most recently with advanced astronomy and interstellar space travel. Ainz knew how science could be led astray to terrible ends, so he carefully guided Demiurge against such things. The natural sciences were advanced to insure that the New World was not tarnished in the process, but enhanced, beautified and given great tracts of seas and rivers, forests, plains, mountains and deserts filled with all varieties of plants and animals, many of which had been resurrected from extinct species.

Demiurge took most pride in the creation of new World Items, of such immense power that they could terraform some of the barren rocks in space into lush gardens suitable for colonization some day. They were of course safely kept in Nazarick with that purpose in mind. Ainz was pleased how less malevolent Demiurge was when his formidable mind was creatively occupied with science, as well as delighted with the acquisition of such extraordinary items by Nazarick.

Part of the educational system was the National Academies of Service and Administration. Established by Sebas Tian and his late wife Tsuare, the women's Academy bearing her name; and the men's academy named Tatchi Mi, after his creator Touch Me. They trained the senior government officials and senior bureaucrats to be intelligent and honest leaders, with a strong emphasis on ethics and to actively seek out and help those in need. The majority of their students trained to be private butlers and maids, not to be slaves or laborers, but assistants and facilitators of their employers. Graduates were in great demand and highly paid. They also acted as a clandestine intelligence network for Nazarick.

Cocytus was next. His sadness at seeing so very many great and honorable warriors brought low through endless and mindless battles persuaded him to ask Lord Ainz for a better way. Ainz suggested athleticism and sports, which Cocytus thought was a splendid idea. It turned out as well that he was an inspirational speaker, guiding untold numbers of people into leading healthier and more productive lives, and most any day there were popular sporting events in amphitheaters and gymnasiums in every nation. Likewise his public baths and spas were enjoyed by all ages. Of the races, perhaps humans benefited from this the most, becoming taller, stronger, faster and more handsome as a race.

Lord Ainz could not help but to feel nostalgic for the next report, which came from the dual monarchy of the Elf Kingdom. In remembrance of their late beloved founders of their unified kingdom, their still hetero-chromatic rulers were dark elves descended from Queen Aura, and wood elves, descended by marriage to a wood elf queen from Aura's brother King Mare. To give the report, they selected young elves under 100 years old, wearing pants and ceremonial skirts, respectively, as did all females and males in their delegation. Have 13 generations of elves already come and gone?, asked Ainz to himself. Sad that Bukubukuchagama could not have invested at least her elves with greater longevity. Still, he had to laugh at the elves ostentation and formality. Their highest honor was to be invited to attend the annual report at Nazarick, in their thousands, even if they could not be in one of the great halls personally, but just on other floors. Only two exemplary young members of the royal house received the honor of acting as ceremonial guardians of the 6thfloor of Nazarick for a year.

The reign of Queen Aura and King Mare was marked with rare fecundity among the elven peoples, who now were in far greater numbers than ever before. Useful, because as a people, Lord Ainz had assigned them to be the policemen of the New World. Generally honest and fair to all races, they kept crime to a minimum, and created an air of safety throughout the realm.

Shalltear Bloodfallen could always be trusted to put on a show. A queen and teacher of the fine arts, she was a inspirational whirlwind of song, dance, sculpture, painting, fashion, architecture, furniture and investing creative beauty wherever people looked. She truly had the soul of an artist, Ainz thought to himself. Well, probably dozens of them, he mused. Under her guidance, artisans of all stripes lived in a guilded era of creativity, evolving new and exciting visions in both realism and abstract. Which reminded Ainz of the huge scandal thousands of years before, when she hosted an erotic arts show. At the time it almost caused a riot, followed by an orchestral and operatic performance that did cause a riot, but a generation later barely raised an eyebrow and were seen as classics. She adored all the attention, praise and criticism, as the grand dame of the fine arts.

Ainz suspected, but couldn't prove that she had somehow obtained an ancient music library, because some of the her musical compositions and those of her community of students sounded a little too familiar, but he did not press her on the subject, content as everyone else to enjoy their work. Be that as it may, in most years this was the highlight of the reports and was always well attended.

The next presentation was by the veiled leaders of the Daughters of Nigredo, who ran the New World system of hospitals and hospices, orphanages and foster care, therapy and healing centers for all. Otherwise wearing normal clothing, their veils were out of respect to honor their patroness, who always made it a point to attend that day, whose appearance necessitated her wearing a veil so as not to frighten others.

Part of their presentation would be given by Bareare Pharmaceuticals, whose many products had generated a lot of revenue for Nazarick over the years. They had also taken over the management of various human guilds, for magicians, casters, and even adventurers (now called explorers), turning them into professional societies. For Ainz' convenience, they also produced scrolls and published books, both magical and ordinary, for public libraries and schools. High literacy was seen as a public duty.

The merchant's guilds would piggyback on this presentation, taking the opportunity to display the next years' commercial products, which again garnered great interest. Commerce had boomed ever since the Nazarick innovation of reusable item boxes and inventory scrolls, so up to 500kg of cargo could be transported with the weight of two scrolls, one that maintained the item box, and the other that dynamically listed its contents. Added to this was the system of high quality roads, canals and aqueducts, dams, watermills and windmills, which meant that food and good clothing was available to all. Ainz also strongly improved commerce with things like a lingua franca, a standard written and spoken language; a standardized system of weights and measures and time; and the codified Ainz' Law, both criminal and civil.

Extensive mining, in the mineral rich but otherwise barren mountains, then magically smelted in a pollution free manner, produced a surfeit of metals and minerals, but such an excess of gold, silver and jewels created economic instability. But this was solved with the YGGDRASIL gold, which was reserved for banking and industrial commerce. As gold coin, it was rated as much more valuable than the metal it contained, and its circulation was tightly controlled. This insured that the ordinary coin of the realm could not substantially fluctuate, keeping prices low, wages high, and products and food plentiful.

Other reports, from subordinate leaders and municipalities would be submitted on paper, mostly so, Ainz told himself, he would have something to keep him occupied on slow days. So with the conclusion of the reports and the show for the day, most of the world leaders in attendance would retire to the banquet hall, so the historical review, and the real party, for the descendants of Ainz, could commence. But before they left, Ainz wanted all to know that he had an important announcement to make. A rare thing, guaranteed to headline the immediate dispatches in all directions across the land.

After many years, and in consultation with his beloved first wife Albedo, Lord Ainz Ooal Gown had decided that henceforth, the name he had chosen for the New World was "Momonga" of the "Momon" star system. Planet Momonga. The assembled greeted the announcement with prolonged and honest cheers.


	2. Chapter 2

_Between the two great events, Ainz held a more subdued gathering, of his world's leading historians. Because what good is history if it becomes distorted, corrupt, and forgotten? He did not wish the stories of his empire to be thought of as colorful myths told to disinterested schoolchildren. So he took the reigns of teacher to describe each millennium, then to field polite questions about the details within._

 _Unlike the first emperor of Earth's China, Qin Shi Huang, a generally laudable leader in Ainz' estimation, who had wanted history to begin with his reign, so had all the history books burned and the historians buried alive, or so the story went, Ainz sought to preserve history._

 _He used to mention this event to the assembled historians while saying that he would never do such a thing (the tacit threat remained that if they annoyed him enough he might change his mind). But he discovered that their inclination was instead to "magnify and glorify" his name too much, which was also to be discouraged as it would tend to make their students more skeptical. So instead Ainz tried to be objective and to be more forthcoming in his answers, so that the truth would win out._

 _His first era was the time before his arrival and the time of troubles, which was not a complete millennium but close to it. Yet it was of intense interest to historians, because history had not yet been formulated as a formal study on the New World, mythology had not been separated from fact, evidence was plentiful, but concealed, and most of all, some who were alive then were still alive, but disinclined to talk about their pasts, except with each other._

 _More practically, it was also the beginning of documentary evidence in the form of the Nazarick Memory Bank, a brilliant idea on his part, Ainz thought, that had paid many dividends over the course of years. A historian with just one account is uncertain; but give him two vaguely similar accounts and both become fact._

 _It began in the most trivial of ways. In an idle moment, Ainz was reminiscing about a discussion he had in YGGDRASIL with Tabula Smaragdina, about a horror movie he had enjoyed, but try as he might, he could not remember its name. But this brought the realization that his memory was not unusually good, and over time he would forget details and his memories would become corrupt, unless he made it a point to record them. From there he realized the problem might also extend to the NPCs and individuals aligned with Nazarick. With much thought, this led to the creation of the Nazarick Memory Bank, or NMB._

 _In small rooms conducive to remembering were "console homonculi" that would record memories, written and oral. Once a given memory was complete, from several viewpoints, it would be transported to permanent storage in the Nazarick treasury under good security. Ainz very carefully explained to the guardians and other invited contributors the difference between objective and subjective reports, and how both were important, and the guiding, but not required, format for them to use to insure important details were recorded. It used the universal planning format first created by Sun Tzu, adapted and modified by military organizations ever since, with a few wise additions, but no deletions. An eternal masterpiece of organization and planning._

 _Then, as a final twist, Ainz whimsically added a strange condition. Before a guardian would publish a report, they would select one of the 64 hexagrams of the I Ching as its symbol, whichever one they thought most descriptive, most relevant to that report. With titles like "Hexagram for the Creative Heaven" and "Hexagram for Duration", it would help them overcome their natural rigidity of the mind._

 _Though he later discovered that, at least at first, they thought of this last idea as agonizing torture and filled with painful self-doubt, until they finally grasped that it was not factual, but purely based on their spur of the moment opinion. For a time it also led one or two of them to develop an interest in fortune telling as a hobby, but that, fortunately, didn't last._

For his own use, Ainz realized that he was far too much caught up in self-reflection, yet he had no peers or friends in which to confide. Even his closest, most beloved NPCs could not be fully trusted with what he knew, felt, or feared. For this reason he needed his own personal, secret, safe analyst; a confessor; a confidant; a sounding board; and, in the final analysis, a safe means to experiment with the whole truth, new ideas and innermost thoughts. A psychiatrist in a box. That Demiurge's scientists were, with considerable guidance, eventually able to make such a thing to his satisfaction finally gave Ainz a means to relieve much emotional stress. In return, it gave these scientists many new insights into artificial intelligence.

Such an analyst would be a very useful tool, but also a very dangerous weapon. Therefore it must be exclusive to Ainz, and kept isolated from anyone else. Paradoxically, it must be allowed great access to much information. It must also be uninhibited in what it tells Ainz. And finally, if part of it became corrupted or dangerous or no longer useful, that part must be able to be wiped and reset without harm to the whole.

The analyst would have to be immobile, and it would instantly self destruct if anyone other than Ainz were to enter its room or attempt to recover data from it.

Areas of the brain of the analyst would have to be subdivided into modes, so that even with the same data input, the output of each mode would be different. Part would be fawning sycophant; another part bitter enemy; another part indifferent, or neutral; another part cynical and skeptical; parts would be optimistic and pessimistic; part would be motivated by extreme greed and avarice; another part extremely calculating; another part filled with blind rage, hate and desire for revenge; another part that is deceptive and wishing to conceal the truth, and a large part filled with beneficence and compassion, to balance the rest.

Since he was denied strong emotions by the suppression field, he wanted them by proxy.

 _The first millennium of his empire was a time of great growth and creation. Ainz' original plan was that each millennium would somewhat follow the five traditional elements in character. Wood or Spring, Fire or Summer, Earth or late Summer, Metal or Autumn, and Water or Winter. Extrapolated from nature in a farming culture into society as a whole._

 _After growth and creation, Spring, would be a season of vitality, Summer, fruiting and order. Then a season of late Summer, Earth, a time of moderation. Then a millenium season of harvest and prosperity, leading into the decay and rot of Fall. And this would be followed by the fifth millenium season, of fallow and washing away the waste, Winter, so that the slate would be wiped clean and the process could begin anew. This was a tried and true method used by some in Asia, with successor leaders trained for their elemental role, which had proven itself over time. Water emperors, like the first emperor of China, tended to great destruction and bloodshed, as was expected of them by everyone else._

 _If they carried out their respective roles as leaders, their entire realm would support them. If they opposed their role, their court and realm would act incompetent and inefficient, and nothing would change. In their own ways, each of these seasons would be imbalanced, but these imbalances would be canceled in the entire system, which would as a whole be balanced. A greater order to things would prevail._

 _At least this was Ainz' idea of how his society should evolve over time. He did not ask himself how he knew this, as he had not learned this in school. But he knew that he somehow he knew many things he had never been taught._

 _However, this being said, near the end of a very constructive millenium, circumstances intervened in the form of a message from Demiurge, requesting an immediate visit by Ainz to the chief astronomical observatory in the New World, located in the Azerlisia Mountains. This revealed that a planetoid body had entered their solar system at high speed, and while it could not be predicted to menace the New World, it might create some disruption were it to pass nearby. In and of itself this was only interesting, until the planetoid changed course. As a potential threat, Ainz then directed Demiurge to immediately begin efforts to develop world items, or even the new class of planetary items, to protect the world from it if necessary. The capability of making uniquely New World items of immense power, far stronger than many YGGDRASIL items, had been a cornerstone of his empire._

 _This possible threat also represented the beginning of their space program. The cooperative venture of scientists, merchants, and casters soon resulted in grand leaps in technology, resulting in a fleet of very fast exploratory ships and very heavily armed warships and emergency evacuation ships. There was no expectation that they could destroy the planetoid from afar, only to get close enough to engage it with destructive items. Demiurge begged Ainz to let him be on the first exploratory ship, bringing magical means whereby he could destroy the planetoid if needed, even if he had to do so from within. When first it was seen, he reported that it was not round like a natural body, but shaped more like a cylindrical barrel, crafted to be an immense spaceship. It had a giant dock, more than able to accommodate the entire ship. Within there were no signs of life._

 _There was, however, a great corridor inscribed with thousands of different language iterations of the same simple phrase, later determined to be the name of the ship. "Research Master Archive." When Demiurge passed through the corridor and entered through a great door, he discovered what at least this part of the ship was. He found a gigantic research library able to, without any living beings aboard, study and record knowledge of seemingly endless planets on its quest through the galaxy. Something was wrong, however, as it had run out of storage capacity, so that as new worlds were recorded, the oldest of its data was lost. To rendezvous with this ship, even for a short time, was the highlight of Demiurge's life. A treasury of incalculable value. With his determination that it was not a tangible threat, the character of the mission changed completely._

 _The discovery of a portrait of what he suspected was one of the creators of the spaceship, a large, handsome demonic being with cloven hooves, leathery wings, horns, and a tail, convinced him of their overall beneficence, though he was quite abashed that they considered themselves "Overlords."_

 _With its final adjustments to its course, it entered orbit around the New World. Working around the clock, Demiurge and every scientist and scholar with him were only able to record the smallest fraction of its data before the ship itself made it clear it was preparing to automatically leave. Even so, sorting through such a mountain of information for what was useful would take ages. Demiurge also noted with interest that within the ship were signs of other visitors and some battle damage, but no carnage. Cleaned but not repaired. And an artifact._

 _It appeared to be a battle axe, not a primitive weapon, but machined, and of extraordinary mass. With later examination in a laboratory, it proved to be an impossible thing. Made of artificial elements of extreme mass, normally so unstable that they would disintegrate in a tiny fraction of a second. Or rather, stable isotopes of those elements, alloyed together. Impossible for any number of reasons. He guessed that it had extra-universal origins, from a universe where such things could exist, yet had somehow retained their character in this one._

 _Demiurge then speculated that a type of magic had been used so that to its user it would feel lightweight, yet would impact the user's target like a bladed castle gate, cutting through most things with ease. He imagined that once casters could figure out how to restore its magic, it would make a fine gift for Ainz himself._

 _The greatest conclusions of this spaceship were that first, there existed very advanced civilizations who might become a threat in the future; second that even with their fleet of ships, which needed to be vastly greater in number, they needed a gate technology to cross the limitless void of space faster. And it would still take many durable and long lived pilots, likely automatons. The third conclusion was that once they had the means, they should pursue this archive, take control of it, and make it the property of Nazarick as a permanently orbiting body._

 _And fourth, why had its creators seemingly abandoned it?_

 _Last, he noted from the ship's charted path, displayed on a great viewer in the library, that it had changed its course to widely avoid several stars, some of which had later exploded, while others had the potential to explode. And that a handful of such stars were close enough to the New World to destroy it, sooner or later. It gave him centuries of concern. How might they neutralize a star?_

 _This second millenium changed the course of the Empire in ways that reminded Ainz of the original purpose of YGGDRASIL, one of exploration and discovery. So even before its start, he dedicated the third millenium to that purpose._


	3. Chapter 3

**_The 10,000 Year Reign of Overlord Ainz Ooal Gown, Part 3, Children of Ainz_**

The Brightness Dragon Lord _was scholarly and whimsical, and his great entertainment was to both create new and powerful races, and to procreate and preserve those that were scarce or endangered. He held vast reserves of wild magic and was not spendthrift in its use to these ends, but otherwise kept to himself in his hidden lair in the Azerlisia mountains with his substantial worldly treasures that were expected of Dragon Lords, but ill used by him. He spent his time remotely viewing the rest of the world and rarely intervening in it as was his want. Even other dragon lords were wary of him because of his eccentricities, power, and what they uncomfortably thought of as his "perversion", that in a human form, he had mated with, and produced offspring with races other than dragons. They suspected he saw his fellow dragons and even Dragon Lords as just potential experiments._

 _It was during this time his gaze fell upon Albedo. A lone succubus in the world, of mysterious origins, and imbued with dark energy. Were he a younger dragon he would have dreamed of mating with her himself, but given that she was a lone creature in the world, and deeply in love with another, the idea offended both his scholarly and courtly sensibilities. So he only allowed himself to be sympathetic with her dilemma, her wanting a mate she longed for but could not embrace in his current form._

 _So he developed a complex plan, by which she could find a path to happiness, and with an extremely powerful mate, to produce offspring the likes of which the world had never seen. He much enjoyed creating the scheme over the course of decades, with a great degree of difficulty, that in effect would require his having total control over all of Nazarick for days. The cost in wild magic was enormous, and he knew it would leave him impoverished for many centuries. Which in a strange way made it even more interesting to him._

 _Typically, he would have made the race change of her mate permanent. But in this case, it was less expensive to just force the first race change, then adapt him by giving him a new skill, so that at low cost to himself he could race change in the future at will, without limit as to what intelligent races, though eventually returning to his native form._

 _It took great finesse to penetrate the Nazarick communication system, then to adequately impersonate the voices of those that used it. While the first part of the plan seemed frivolous, he felt it important to set the mood as being nonthreatening. He contacted Sebas Tian, pretending to be Ainz, and directed him to supervise the preparation of a sumptuous banquet including many bottles of fine drink, which within an hour window on a given day were to be set up within Ainz' bedchamber. An implication was made of a high level, extraordinarily secret diplomatic gathering, to the point where even the trusted servants of Nazarick were not yet to be informed, but for unclear reasons._

 _After the given hour when all was in preparation, the Dragon Lord, again using the voice of Ainz, summoned Albedo to his bedchamber. As expected, she moved with great dispatch. Then he summoned Ainz, using the voice of Albedo, with some urgency in her voice. Once they had arrived, both puzzling over the banquet, a truly powerful barrier sealed the bedchamber, walls, ceiling and floor. Impenetrable to either the physical or the magical, and sealed against teleportation or even communication. Yet an unparalleled spell was also within the bedchamber, and began executing immediately._

 _The great confusion of Ainz and Albedo at being imprisoned was magnified with the forced race change of Ainz, painfully converting him into an irresistibly handsome incubus, while still retaining his immense negative energy and aura. "What is happening?", he asked Albedo, at the same time glancing at his hands to find them both of a very different size and shape, and covered with flesh._

 _Turning around to see his form in the bedchamber mirror, Ainz was overwhelmed. His god level items, in fact almost all his items, were missing. And his appearance was much like a male Albedo, with horns and yellow eyes, but his wings were white unlike her black ones. And then the light dawned that he was naked, with just his academic style divine class robe on the floor at his feet, his last item, but relatively powerless. He was a naked incubus, and an impressively male one. And he could not just feel emotions, but all of them, and all at once, some base and primitive, and some sublime and even transcendent. And all the other feelings that flesh is heir to: a ravaging hunger and thirst, the great pain of unsubdued nerves in his skin, and all the other sensations not felt in years. Before he could pass out in agony, it mostly subsided, but not before leaving him covered with a sheen of oily sweat._

 _Coming back to his senses, he then had a brief flash of great fear, that Albedo might consider him an enemy invader and immediately attack, but turning around he saw that she was unable to move or even speak, of flushed face, mouth halfway open, breathing heavily and trembling. Worried for her distress, he tried approach her. It was then he discovered that his new body had a mind of its own, and found himself moving in her direction with a different, but intense purpose._

 _Their mutual passion was amazing, yet they stopped at times to feast, Albedo sensing his starvation, and realizing how very long it had been since Ainz had eaten, so paused for his benefit. Strange creatures, succubi and incubi, for unlike other creatures that find release and relief in sex and other pleasures, they find themselves tensed, renewed, and strengthened, their lust and impulse made stronger._

 _Outside the sealed bedroom chamber, the now alerted guardians were in a state of frenzied panic. The amount of damage they were willing to create to free their imprisoned lord was unimaginable. But in a manner of speaking, the day was saved by Shalltear Bloodfallen, who 'discovered' a hitherto unknown discreet peephole to the bedchamber had been left open. Demiurge and Cocytus and the Pleiades_

 _were alternatively relieved, embarrassed, shocked, and more as she delivered a rude play by play announcement and critique of what was taking place within. At first of Albedo and some unknown incubus, with Lord Ainz nowhere in sight, before realizing that Ainz was that incubus. At intervals, Demiurge had to shoo away the Homunculus Maids, who had discovered an urgent need to clean the area near the bedchamber. This was not done in anger, however, as Demiurge understood their burning curiosity._

 _Only after the fact did they all realize that Aura and Mare were conspicuous in their absence, a mystery never resolved, that they later did not wish to discuss._

 _Between times, Ainz ate and drank food that was like nothing he had ever had before, and found it delicious beyond compare. As with their mutual lust, there was no satiation, only the intensity of competing impulses. Outside the peephole, Shalltear was herself experiencing her own powerful variety of existential feelings, yet was transfixed by the erotic visions within._

 _Finally, after three days, the barrier disintegrated, and with it Ainz reverted to his skeletal form with his world items restored. The startled guardians rushed in to find the bedchamber in great need of cleaning and repair. Ainz and Albedo were less than helpful, caught up in unfocused thoughts and satisfied distraction. Already in a condition of maximum alert in Nazarick, the situation was confused._

 _The absent Aura and Mare reappeared, filled to the brim with innocent sounding questions about what had happened that nobody wanted to answer. Demiurge and Cocytus angrily and loudly remonstrated with Shalltear when she tried to tell the elves all about it. This may have been the moment when Ainz resolved to hire the best Dark and Wood Elf tutors for them, with the eye of getting them educated at least as well as their elven peers, prior to enrolling them in a Dark Elf school._

 _Pandora's Actor, unknowing of what had transpired, had ventured out of the Treasury to ask Ainz about the disposition of the large amount of fine crafted and ancient treasure that had appeared in the Treasure Hall, as well as the assortment of large, unregistered data crystals in the Data Crystal Storage Room. But most of all about three small gift boxes, addressed to Albedo, each of which were inscribed with words of an unknown language. Yet they stood out among the treasure, arranged as something special._

 _Despite all else, Ainz was caught up in the most mundane predicament. How to propose marriage to Albedo? He truly wanted to do this. Plus, it was blindingly obvious that though she seemed contented and pleasant for the time being, that she would return with white hot ferocity to stake her claim to him. He desperately wanted to prevent that conflict, and in all fairness he was not adverse to the idea of marriage to her. But though players could be married IRL, or just in YGGDRASIL, or in the New World by whatever means, he had no idea how an Emperor could declare her his queen, or how they could sanctify their union to her satisfaction._

 _And that was the critical thing. For while she would happily assent to whatever he proposed, if it varied at all from what she wanted, he suspected that he would never hear the end of it. His best decision, in retrospect, was to quickly obtain an engagement ring of superb quality and power, which was found for him by Pandora's Actor among the new treasures in the Treasure Hall. Undoubtedly crafted during the Dragon Age with a great amount of wild magic, even using his all appraisal skill, he was surprised at its amazing and complex character. If he had not intended it for Albedo, he would have certainly worn it himself. Such a ring was likely to take her level to well over 100._

 _A couple of months had passed since the event, and fairly certain that there was no danger from outside, the level of tension had lowered to moderate. But then Ainz received a message from Sebas Tian and two of the Pleiades, that Albedo was in a seemingly unprovoked and unfocused rage, had already caused considerable damage, and most importantly, was headed in the direction of his office._

 _If he had been able, he would have been trembling. So he quickly brought out the engagement ring, almost as if it was a last ditch defensive world item, he thought to himself. In her current state of mind he had to act quickly and authoritatively. So when she burst through the office doors, damaging them in the process, seemingly enraged at him, he loudly demanded that she approach him._

 _Albedo was breathing heavily, of flushed face, Ainz opened and presented the ring box, then declared, "Albedo, will you marry me?" Albedo stumbled, as if she was about to faint, so Ainz caught her, and she hugged him back, then hugged him a second time as he put the ring on her finger._

 _"_ _Oh yes! Ainz! Yes!", and she began profoundly weeping, which did not surprise Ainz, but then snarling and screaming, which did surprise him. Something is very wrong, here, he thought to himself, before blurting out words that were not his own. "Albedo, you are pregnant!"_

 _When she tore out of the office, she not only smashed the doors, but damaged the wall opposite them. All Ainz could think of was first, shouldn't she have said yes before I put the ring on her finger? And second, that he should have been down on one knee, or something, while proposing. And third, I wonder how I knew she was pregnant? Then, with emphasis, why did I say she was pregnant?_

 _For her part, she had no idea why she was angry with Ainz, at all, and upset that she had fouled up his proposal. But even angrier that Ainz had spotted her pregnancy before she had. She was incredibly impressed by her engagement ring, it having far more of everything than she was hoping for in her dreams, besides looking spectacular, and realized that she was starving hungry._

 _"_ _Trying to feed a pregnant succubus", soon became the Nazarick expression for a Sisyphean task._

 _Not to fear, Ainz suggested to himself. She won't mind if I propose to her again, the right way, in the throne room, and for all to see. This will clear any confusion when I ask her of what kind of wedding she wants, and her requests of the other guardians will be seen as being made with my assent._

 _This reminded Ainz of a brief conversation he had with Touch Me, when he asked what kind of wedding Touch Me had with his young and beautiful wife. Touch Me replied, it is a simple formula. If she requests something, insure that she has double that, plus a third more. You will still be wrong, but she won't be as upset with you as she would have been otherwise._

 _The guardians outdid themselves in preparations for the wedding, traveling far and wide. Mare brought forth exotic and perfumed flowers, and Aura had beautiful songbirds. Accessories and decorations made the throne room festive, and their reception feast was worthy of an Emperor and Queen._

 _Shalltear Bloodfallen was surprisingly capable with several musical instruments based on ancient designs found in the Nazarick library, built at her request by craftsmen amazed by the sound quality they produced. Soon "Shalltear" label were the must have instruments of successful musicians and even bards. Sebas Tian perused many libraries and found the romantic poems that Shalltear then turned into lyrics for her wedding songs. Knowing that Aura would turn down her slightly dismissive offer to sing the lyrics to her music, Shalltear asked her first, before inviting her brother Mare to do so. Shalltear already knew that Mare had a beautiful singing voice, whereas Aura's voice was just average._

 _Despite the amazing beauty of the wedding, and the happy, yet faraway gaze of Albedo, Ainz could not help but focus on her baby bulge, and wonder is it supposed to be that big already?_

 _Just two weeks later, Albedo gave birth to three baby girls, attended by Pestonya, to treat any discomfort that Albedo might experience. A remarkably easy delivery, Pestonya observed, having watched the suffering of human women attended by midwives. And unlike most deliveries, just the minimal healing magic was needed. Other than producing milk, few would have ever guessed that Albedo had given birth to children._

 _Outside, the men acted as men do, fretting and fussing while awaiting their summons to attend. Pestonya later admitted feminine enjoyment at stringing out the announcement, coming out separately to announce each baby with several minutes in between. By the third announcement, Ainz emotional suppression was annoying the hell out of him. When he was finally granted admission, and saw Albedo holding their daughters, and his feelings of unsurpassed joy and love were suppressed, it made him enraged. But this caused something to happen that was to change the course of Nazarick forever._

 _By pure willpower, Ainz spontaneously and unexpectedly race changed, a wild magic skill, now his own, imparted to him by the Brightness Dragon Lord. This time, not into an incubus, but by becoming a bipedal werewolf. Still a very painful exercise. While werewolves have a bad reputation for violence, gluttony and sloth, they are also known for their attentive, loving, even doting care of their children. As a werewolf father, Ainz could finally express to Albedo and his daughters how he truly felt. Albedo could feel the waves of love and affection washing over them all, with no hesitation at all in recognizing her beloved in his temporary new form._

 _Werewolves do have a scent, however, and with the first hint of it, a very excited Lupusregina Beta was there like a shot. Blocking her path was a determined Sebas Tian, which made for an interesting impasse. It was Lupusregina's first mating impulse, and it was a strong one, her nose telling her that a superior werewolf male was there, and she had already involuntarily started to transform into her werewolf form when she was wrested away by a strong team of guardians and Pleiades, and taken, snarling and snapping, to a safe place for her to calm down from her frenzy._

 _Later, when Ainz and Albedo were informed of this, Albedo's response was first, to laugh, then to express sympathy for Lupusregina, knowing well the pain of affection denied, even if in her case it was chronic, and in Lupusregina's, acute. Ainz was taken aback and was speechless, wisely, he was certain, when she proposed to him that if he was to transform into a werewolf again, that he should mate with her. Albedo's motive was clear, and she explained to him at length that it was Ainz' duty as Emperor to create an extensive dynasty of offspring, with her and any other females that Albedo deemed satisfactory for the purpose. Assuming of course that Ainz could transform into either a pure breed of that female's race, or a race close enough to produce powerful issue, so that his efforts were not wasted in idle pleasure._

 _Completely taken off guard, Ainz could at first only see things from a masculine viewpoint, that he was walking through an emotional minefield, and any false step could be catastrophic, and turn Albedo against him._

 _But far too slowly, he later said to himself, he realized the brilliance of her scheme. For she had envisioned this from the very first, and had accomplished all of her goals in it. That they be betrothed and married, elevating her to Queen. That as his first wife, she create the royal children, guaranteeing these children the succession of authority of the Empire. But from there, her insistence on other wives, as well as other powerful women of other races was a classic idea of diplomacy, as "war by other means."_

 _They would be their father's superior children, with the elite of other nations and their races, and would ascend to control of their respective peoples. Educated in Nazarick, their loyalties would be to Ainz, and to align their nations as closely as possible with the Empire. Persuading, and coercing as necessary in pursuit of this goal. Which would save the Empire a fortune of gold spent on armies and bureaucracies to accomplish this same end. Control would be replaced with enthusiastic cooperation._

 _And finally, Ainz admired Albedo's crafty assumption of the power to decide who, how and when Ainz should take on new brides as well as mate with females of Albedo's choice. Though he would have been shocked to know the global magnitude of her ambitions, as a tool to insure their perpetual reign. While she could not have possibly brought all of this about herself, she had always been on the lookout for circumstances and conditions that could make it possible, as implausible as that sounded._

 _Ainz caught himself with the humbling realization that these things might just be what he had figured out on his own, and there might be even more, so he asked Albedo, "that we not be at cross purposes", to explain these things to Demiurge and Sebas Tian. While I look on, he said to himself._

 _Standing before her, the first response Ainz noticed was Sebas Tian's face reddening somewhat, that Ainz mused likely reflected Touch Me's initial reaction to the surface immorality of the plan, but as her explanation unfolded, any reservations he had disappeared. For his part, Demiurge began by bowing his head, then by respectfully bowing at the waist, then by dropping to a knee. But Ainz was taken aback when Demiurge sank to the floor on his hands and knees, and kowtowed before her._

 _Were Demiurge able to shed tears at Albedo's unparalleled genius, he would have. For to him, her scheme was artistry of the highest order. He had never before imagined the like, and was awed before its greatness. Perhaps he imagined, as he had done before, that she had far more control over the situation than she did._

 _Ainz also noted that Albedo was unfazed by this obeisance, accepting it at face value as something due her station as a queen._

 _It was known that in the New World, children grew quickly, and this was the case with the "princesses", as Ainz called them. But they were an enigmatic trio. To start with, their race was unclear, with characteristics of the highest levels of human, demi-human, and heteromorphic races. As such, they were of their own race. Likewise, their Level was incalculable, off the scale. And few of their skills and talents could even be identified, much less their karma._

 _While generally friendly to others, Ainz and Albedo figured out that they needed a nanny of such power than only Rubedo would do, if for no other reason than to protect all of Nazarick from their destructive powers, intentional or not. With a tantrum they could level a mountain range. Fortunately for all, they were not prone to tantrums. They were, however, energetic young girls, and kept Rubedo and all her helpers busy, except when they uncharacteristically, for such beings, took naps._


	4. Chapter 4

**_The 10,000 Year Reign of Overlord Ainz Ooal Gown, Part 4, The Age of Exploration_**

 _The second millennium changed the direction of the world, so that the third millennium was devoted to exploration, of the seas, of the far flung regions, and of their star system. In the process were built large naval vessels, both surface and submarine. In space, there were bases built on nearby planets that were not unstable or intolerable. These were armed as defensive outposts against potential invaders._

 _The great discoveries of this period were numerous, first the great island of Papura, with its seemingly impassable jungle mountains, strange ability to inhibit and disrupt magical movements, and its isolated primitive peoples of many races, like ancient ancestors of those that lived in these days, so of great anthropological interest. Quickly placed under the protection of Ainz Ooal Gown to prevent their exploitation, destruction or corruption, visits to Papura were strictly controlled and discreet. "To understand, not interfere" were their orders._

 _Next was the active volcanic island chain of Hestatia, in the "Hot Sea", the ocean surrounding it made much warmer and acidic from the volcanism. Quickly deemed a planetary threat, extensive scientific and magical monitoring was intended to be emplaced while study was undertaken, which soon proved too little and too late._

 _The island of Bolb, ancient and weathered, was sparsely populated, mostly with humans and elves, who lived agrarian lives. The adventurers-explorers who discovered them arrived heavily armed, based on indeterminate warnings of great risk from the closest coastal regions. Humans or elves that had traveled there were often exiles, not permitted to return to their homelands, but had made no effort to do so. The truth was disappointing at first, until they realized two phenomena: that there was almost no conflict on the island in living memory, nor were there any undead, or even cemeteries, just a few isolated graves, mostly for newcomers who had died during their passage. The answers to their inquiries always involved the local religious, that were pacifistic and itinerant, who each carried a strange but non-communicable disease that formed large, yellow-orange, blister like growths on their skin, wandering about with their begging bowls, which others generously filled. In turn this led to their holy place, the great caverns within their central mountains. The adventurers-explorers did not attempt to visit the caverns, anticipating a very long quarantine at sea before being allowed to return home._

 _The island of Underside was vast in size, and mostly desert except for stretches of jungle and wetland on its coasts. Few lived there, but its substantial mineral wealth, plus its exotic and interesting animal life showed great prospects for future development. However, one discovery by the adventurers-explorers caused the most excitement seen in Nazarick in a very long time, followed by the assembly of a gigantic invasion force. The discovery of another guild base._

 _With gentle interrogation, local humans in the area expressed no fear, referring to the base as "the ruins", and knew nothing of its origins or purpose. They thanked their interviewers for the delicious food and drink, and told them that even children played in the upper reaches of the ruins without harm, though it was too dark below to see except with torches._

 _It was soon discovered that the guild base had belonged to the World Searcher guild in YGGDRASIL, but it had no signs of ever having been occupied, with no NPCs, traps, or world items such as "Graeae", they were known to possess. World Searcher was best known for discovering the secrets of YGGDRASIL. Enigmatically, on one of its lower walls was scrawled a message whose meaning remained unknown until a drawing of it came to Ainz himself. It had been seemingly written by the NPC of a different guild, to the effect that "Kitty Kingdom was here". It was a calling card message, to let a guild know that they had received hostile visitors while they were not in. Kitty Kingdom was a guild that created NPCs based on cats or other feline creatures. But no other traces were found of either guild for dozens of miles around._

 _Ainz still kept an occupation force stationed there for a few centuries, on general principals. It eventually turned into a retirement and recreational community, popular with tourists._

 _While this program was underway on Underside, word came back from a merchant vessel making a routine delivery to the island of Bolb. One of their passengers, an Elder Black Ooze Slime diplomat en route to another destination, was sleeping peacefully in his very large and thick walled glass container, a safety measure because of his acidic character, when he was profoundly disturbed and tried desperately to exit his container. Normally a very dignified creature, he experienced a panic attack and told the crew that he had to get to Bolb at all costs. The ship's Captain refused, and ordered the ship to turn about. Becoming terribly agitated, the glass container could barely hold him in, but it did. Miles away at sea, the Slime finally lapsed into unconsciousness, and nearing the closest mainland port he awoke and seemed to have all of his faculties, though was very unsettled by what had happened. He asked to be taken to the port authorities, as he had vital news for Nazarick itself, which he had visited in past for scholarly reasons._

 _He was adamant that no Slime being, undead or other strongly negative creature be permitted anywhere near Bolb, as the island had a profoundly attractive positive force to negativity that would overwhelm and take control of them. It finally answered the question of why Bolb, with few dead, had no undead, for had they been created, they could not have resisted such an overwhelming force. Ainz, deciding that knowledge of this was important, directed that a survey, solely of living beings and no Slimes, explore the island to determine the source of this possible threat. Overall, it was a balanced group of explorers, attached to whom were several powerful casters and six specially trained mind readers and controllers whose skill as a group was impressive. They had been bred over generations for, and in training their entire life for the purpose of large scale psychic warfare, and this was their first major test against what could be an incredibly powerful psychic force. Their greater purpose was of yet hidden from them, known only to the top leaders and few outside of Nazarick even knew of their existence._

 _The leader of their group was an attractive young girl, whose mental abilities were far beyond those of the other members. She had created for them, and they had memorized, her mental template of how to increase psychic power and studiously followed it to advance their own abilities, hoping that someday to achieve her level of excellence. Yet she was terribly alone in the world, a super genius mind in a world full of mental infants. Her skill was such that she could enter the mind of another and follow, or modify, millions of thought pathways in their brain, yet cause no obvious harm and leave no trace of her visit._

 _It was she who detected and alerted the other explorers that some mind of amazing power was following their movement, still many miles out at sea. And that a welcoming committee was waiting for them at the port. Yet try as she might she could detect no hostility or trace of deception coming from them. Mysteriously, they seemed to have their individual minds, but also to some degree an opaque collective mind. Enigmatic but very interesting. "Are they so confident in their power that they do not fear us?" The superstitious ship's Captain and crew were agitated and made ready that if anything went wrong, the ship could leave with haste with minimal guidance at the helm._

 _The meeting on the dock was...unusual. Six elderly people wearing the simple garments and carrying their begging bowls of their religion, seated at a large table provided with snacks and the local wine by the townspeople, who were in view, and just curious, peeking at the visitors. Their most noteworthy feature of those in the group were the large, blister-like orange yellow growths on their bodies. Their mutual courtesy was to those with the most growths on them who were first to speak._

 _"_ _We will gladly answer any questions you have," their leader said, "but none can quite grasp our way until they visit the holy caverns inland. Once you have seen what lies within, then we can explain it in detail. But to start, what you see on our bodies is not a disease, but the means by which we find unity."_

 _Retiring to the ship for a time to discuss things, the leader of the mentalists was certain that somehow her detection skills were being deceived, because she could not find so much as a trace of duplicity, deception, guile, fear or anger. The lack of normal darkness and fear was an oppressive silence._

 _She demanded of two of the fighters in the explorers party that they help her, by embracing false feelings of hatred for each other, though they were close friends. They were able to muster such feelings and she detected them loud and clear, along with the rest of their mental chatter, and that of everyone else on board. "So how is it even possible that the people we met are free of all the edges of their humanity?" It was decided that only some of the mind readers and casters should travel to the caverns. The rest should be prepared to repel boarders as well as to escape the island before they could be captured or subverted if necessary._

 _The away party were well provisioned for the trip, and the locals admired their rapid means of conveyance on self propelled mechanical vehicles. They were even equipped with radios, in case telepathic communications were blocked, as well as rifles and ammunition._

 _As they approached the caverns they noted that the people they saw on foot had far more of the growths covering their bodies. These people wandered about with a beatific gaze, sometimes approaching one of the large baskets of food brought for them to eat. One old woman, with half her head and back and an entire arm covered with the growths, approached the mentalist leader, and continued the conversation the mentalist had with a different person at the port, as if they were the same person. "Welcome to the Cavern of the Maatha-mose, which can be seen if you look inside from the entrance. Take a glance so you can see it, then you can back away. I will then be glad to tell all of you about it, and you will know what I am talking about. It is safe."_

 _With great trepidation, they first saw a great staircase inside the entrance, leading down to a very large observation deck below ground. Beyond it was the Maatha-mose. A gigantic, filling the cavern, yellow and orange, with some patches of red, amorphous thing. It had to be some type of slime, and though it slowly moved, it seemed firmer than other slimes. And then, contained within, they saw several human or elf skeletons._

 _Joining the slowly retreating mind readers and casters, the old woman said, "Now you will know what I am talking about." She explained that the Maatha-mose began as a monstrous thing with the creation of the New World itself. A tarry ooze, it consumed minerals for sustenance. Then its first great evolution came after the consumption of microorganisms. Consuming them gave it primitive impulse to consume more of them. Eventually decomposing plants, insects and dead animals that were washed underground gave rise to its first low level intelligence. It finally learned to be motive enough to capture living animals, and by absorbing them it rapidly changed into a predatory and evil thing._

 _The current Maatha-mose underwent a major metamorphosis when a large band of dwarves decided to mine the caverns of Bolb, to get minerals and metals untaxed by their government. In doing so they broke into one of the lateral chambers of the cavern of the Maatha-mose, which trapped and consumed them before they could escape. This consumption of evolved beings flipped the character of the Maatha-mose from a negative to a positive thing, and substantially increased its intelligence. The undead, and other slimes that lived on the island, because of their negativity. were attracted to it. As more and more of them were consumed, the Maatha-mose because increasingly positive. And it ceased being predatory of living beings, achieving a sublime mind._

 _Much later, a violently deranged human tried to hide in the cavern, and near starvation broke off a small piece of the Maatha-mose with the intent to eat it. But clinging to his hand, suddenly his mind cleared, his insanity stopped, and he was filled with great peace and fulfillment. Within a short time, he felt a loving connection, a unity, with all those it had consumed before. They shared thoughts and feelings, and he had a great desire to tell others of his discovery. The Maatha-mose had its first supplicant. Through the slowly growing substance on his hand, he could teach the living the wisdom of the dead, and how it was possible to join them in unity forever. Others soon did the same, putting pieces of it on their forearm, thigh, or head for the best connection. Eventually it would cover so much of their body that they would be compelled to insert themselves into the greater Maatha-mose and be consumed, and by doing so to become part of the greater mind. Though it was possible to remove the growth from their body, none had ever chosen to do so._

 _The minds of people and elves soon dominated the Maatha-mose, a shared intelligence of thousands of humans, elves, undead, dwarves and slimes. Yet the strongest minds led it all and made it bend to their will, personality and purpose._

 _In her goodbye to the other mind readers, the leader praised them and wished them the best in whatever the future held for them, but she said this was an opportunity that could not be missed, to put such amazing power into the hands of their master, Ainz Ooal Gown. Horrified at her intent, they raced to the cavern only to find that she had already embraced the Maatha-mose. Yet her superhuman intellect was quickly able to command it and all the minds within completely. She was even able to fashion a greater than life sized version of herself from slime, standing erect, to speak with them face to face. The message she wanted delivered was that she would apply herself to discovering the many ways the Maatha-mose could serve Nazarick. A particular explorer named Katlici, with no detectable psychic ability or talent, neutral karma, and of low skill as an explorer, but reasonably smart and a good listener, was selected to be her liaison with Nazarick, communicating solely by radio, relayed by ships at sea. It didn't hurt that in the brief time they knew each other, he had fallen in love with her, which she enjoyed like having an affectionate pet mouse._

 _Her first message was that the prohibition against undead and slimes should be made permanent, as this astounding amount of positive energy would be their doom. Soon the Daughters of Nigredo built a mental institution on the island, more a hotel for the soon to no longer be mentally ill, as an application of the Maatha-mose was found to not just heal the mind, but damage to the brain as well. Even those born incompetent would not just become rational, but be made more intelligent, to catch up on the education they had missed._

 _There was an insistence that after their healing they be taken from the island, because beyond a given distance, the pieces of Maatha-mose affixed to them, and any other sample of it, would wither and die. And few could resist the enjoyable, but ultimately lethal attraction to such a feeling of unity with so many others. Many races thus had very long debates about whether their aged and infirm members should "make the travel to Bolb", knowing that in a real sense they would continue to live; or did they want to die among those they loved at home._

 _In time, the great mind provided many treasures to Nazarick, including the location of several valuable sealing crystal mines, that would answer some of the great, unanswered questions of the New World. While most were whitish or clear, like diamond and quartz, some were red like rubies, blue like sapphires, green like emeralds, or purple like amethyst. Most importantly, each type performed a very different function. The great mind proposed that if these different types were all gathered in the same place, they would join together to create a "device" of great value, as they seemed to be of complementary purposes._

 _From Ainz' point of view, it sounded vaguely like prismatic ores in YGGDRASIL, joining together to, in the case of Celestial Uranium, create Caloric Stone. But in this case, the various sealing crystals would be able to create a device to do what? In YGGDRASIL, only white or clear sealing crystals were known, with the brilliance of the bluish white light contained within as indication of the potency of the spells they contained. He guessed that this type were somewhat like computer memory, where data would be stored until it was summoned by a spell subroutine, which would explain why they were perhaps the most common kind of sealing crystal._

 _But if that were the case, the function of the device would be based on the data stored within that particular sealing crystal. He generally knew, or could quickly determine what was contained within the sealing crystals in the treasuries' sealing crystal room. Except, he thought to himself, the recently arrived "gifted" sealing crystals put in there. He should make it a point to pay it a visit and use his All Appraisal Magic Item skill on them. With considerable caution._


	5. Chapter 5

_The next millennium became known as the age of disasters._

 _The first of these was a massive earthquake which destroyed much of the city of Hoburns, in the Roble Holy Kingdom. Even before a relief effort could be mounted, a terrible tsunami struck much of the coast, to far inland, from the Agrand Council Alliance south, wiping out cities and many villages. It was soon traced to the collapse of a wall of the third largest volcano in the Hestatia chain,_ _Kagutsuchi, which subsequently slid into the sea. And all of this was prequel to massive eruption of the largest volcano, Hephaestus, which lasted for years, blowing great quantities of ash into the sky as vast amounts of toxic mud erupted from a great rift at its base, sterilizing much of the sea in the region._ _Even with his greatly enhanced powers of restoration and resurrection, Ainz felt great sorrow at his impotence, which in turn made him angry, which solidified into determination in his followers both in science and magic, that this weakness must be overcome._

 _Many were the times that Ainz became so sullen and morose that the ash darkened skies and perpetual chill seemed to reflect his mood. Albedo had taken to weeping in private, for being unable to lift his spirits, which while looked at dispassionately by her princesses, angered her other sons and daughters to the point where they felt they had to confront their father, respectfully, of course, to get him out of his slump._

 _For his part, after the disaster relief needed everywhere, and his entire world mobilized to do whatever they could, his personal depression was based on one thing. That his New World was like YGGDRASIL, which after putting vast effort and time into making himself the master of the world, it was being unceremoniously snatched out from under him. His adopted children of the other supreme beings, his actual children by Albedo and other females, in fact all the beings in this world could be forfeit, and in terrible ways, because of that damned volcano._

 _The delegation of Ainz' children was led by Albedo's second set of triplets, half-elven, two men, Caliburn and Arondigh, who were unparalleled swordsmen warriors, the proteges of "Master Cocytus", and their sister Asclepia, the greatest among magical and physical healers. Ainz, who had always doted on his children, brightened up considerably just by their visit. After fond greetings, they asked to attend the daily hearing of progress being made to stop the eruption._

 _The consensus among advisers was that any means that could stop the volcano would either cause far more harm than the volcano, or would end up redoubling the pressure beneath so that the next eruption would be even more catastrophic._

 _Asclepia suggested what if, instead of trying to stop it, they instead tried to slow it down? This got the discussion rolling again, with many constructive ideas involving both science and magic. Perhaps relieving much of the pressure by creating other volcanoes, some of which were underwater. Or one spell to physically slow the eruption and another to divert much of its heat into space._

 _Not wanting to be outdone by his sister, Arondigh proposed an alternative: instead of slowing it down, why not speed it up? Seeing where he was going with this, Caliburn said that by covering the volcano with a giant magical dome, the ash would be contained. And, thinking quickly, he added, to eventually be dumped into the adjacent mud rift, to seal it closed. This renewed the enthusiasm of both Ainz and his advisers. Of course no magic currently existed that could make or sustain such an immense dome, which was likely structurally impossible as a physical, or even magical thing, and even if it were to be made, it would behave like a tight lid over a boiling pot. But what if the dome behaved more like a mesh strainer, passing most of the heat and gases, just not the voluminous ash, which would instead drop back either on the sides of the volcano or into the sea surrounding it?_

 _Again, a physically impossible construct, unless they used the air surrounding the volcano itself as the mesh, shaped more like a cone than a dome. By using a known type of magic, the density of the air around the volcano, the atmospheric pressure of only the air, could be increased to accomplish this end, passing most of the heat and gases not affected by the magic, but not the ash, itself too dense to pass. And it had the added value that to increase the air density of the strainer air, would inherently decrease the density of the air above it to high in the atmosphere, concentrating much of the heat produced by the volcano straight up, which mattered much more with the eruption being time accelerated. A heat cannon directed to space that would carry much of the noxious gases with it._

 _The consensus was that to accomplish this scheme, an entirely new class of item was needed, what they called Planetary Items. While World Items were meant to bend the rules of YGGDRASIL, and to attack other players, the purpose of a Planetary Item was to change a large part of, or even an entire planet. In this case, an item that would use the energy of the volcano to accelerate its eruption, and another that would use the volcano's energy to create and maintain the cone over it. Even more challenging, because of the scale required, was the environmental repair needed to fix the substantial damage already done to the New World. Once it was determined that a Planetary Item class was at least theoretically possible, research did not pause after creating them for the immediate problem, but expanded in amazing directions._

 _Using common magic, magic casters throughout the empire were exhausted, having been working in shifts to divert much of the ash fall away from populated areas. Others used any spare time to growth accelerate farmers fields, so that they could fertilize and seed, then harvest just a few minutes later, only to fertilize and seed again, giving additional nutrition, water, light and heat the plants needed to grow. This could be done perhaps half a dozen times before the field was used up and had to lie fallow to recover, but it did much to alleviate the widespread starvation._

 _Great advances were made in resurrection items as well, not just for individual, but area resurrection including the weakest of beings, animals and plants, on land and in the water. And the first theory arose over the possibility of even resurrecting long extinct things. Not individuals like long dead beings, their souls long gone, but their bodies, which could then be used to breed offspring that would be new, identical versions of species that no longer existed._

 _Not standing idly by, Demiurge decided to attack the mountains of ash directly, creating great numbers of ash-resistant automatons of all varieties, from street cleaners to humanoid in appearance. With this purpose in mind he established the Shizu Automaton Foundation, named after CZ2128 Delta, who Demiurge had taken a liking to because of her rational approach to situations, then discerning that she was the one being who not only reflected the most advanced technologies of the supreme beings, and the arcane, but obviously even more advanced technologies of the New World that had made them all real things in this world, and that she was far greater than just the sum of her designs. And finally, unlike anyone else, that she could eventually be scientifically analyzed to divine these secrets without harm._

 _And though he was loathe to admit it, over the years his fascination with her had turned into something more, an honest affection that she was somehow able to reciprocate, though seemingly devoid of emotions. So the two had become a pair, her insights into automaton technology providing much of the foundation of the basic knowledge needed to create advanced automatons._

 _Even with almost unlimited resources, Demiurge quickly learned that volcanic ash was among the greatest of enemies of machines. The conveyance manufacturers had already begun to move their production facilities underground, where they had to be kept aggressively clean. And he learned of all the techniques they used to protect moving parts. Yet the hardest part was that the automatons that would build other automatons had to be created by hand by technologists. Even Demiurge saw the irony, that because of the need of unlimited mass production, that he would soon need automatons to build the automatons that would make other automatons._

 _So while he was already set on establishing the Shizu Automaton Foundation, this idea, this philosophy, that the more automatons designed and built themselves, the more emphasis could be placed on innovation of new automaton technologies, smarter, stronger, far more capable, and far more numerous than undead workers, whose numbers had long been stretched thin._

 _In retrospect, Demiurge wondered about his good luck in advancing this project, that when key obstacles were overcome, he clearly saw the hand of Lord Ainz behind the scenes making it so. Things such as the industrial sized item box, capable of carrying 50 tons of material directly from the smelters and other producers, and a legion of cross trained caster-engineers and technologists for every stage of the process. Alloyists, machinists, forge casters, the list was endless, as were the designers, supervisors, mathematicians, programmers, etc. It all made his head swim._

 _Of course the hardest part was the automaton brain. As best as she could, CZ2128 Delta provided insights based on her own brain, but the designers and technologists were overwhelmed by creating brains with just one percent or so of her capability. Yet even so, automatons with such brains almost reached into the realm of intelligent creatures, and readily used the artificial intelligence programming they were given._

 _Meanwhile, progress had continued on neutralizing_ _Hephaestus. Though needed last, the Planetary item to accelerate the eruption was created first. The filter mesh proved to be much harder a concept to make real at the scale and shape needed. But a renewed sense of urgency came after a meeting requested of Lord Ainz by the Royal Geologist. There had been a massive growth in the magma reservoir beneath the volcano chain. Were it to erupt, it would be at a scale so great that most of the world would be buried beneath ash, or lava, or both. It might kill all life on the New World._

 _Ainz was despondent. He assembled the various Planetary item teams, and by Imperial dispensation allowed them to sit on the chairs of the supreme beings at the ninth floor round table, to hear the briefing of the geologist. His intent was that they all be confined there until a solution had been found._

 _After several fruitless and angry hours, finally a suggestion came through from a senior member of the filter mesh team. She suggested two brilliant ideas. The first was that, instead of a cone shaped filter, it instead be cylindrical, and instead of air, that very dense sea water be used. Her logic was that being an open ended cylinder would be a much easier magical construct, so it could extend from far below the sea floor all the way to space, and over a much larger area, the entire island chain and then some. And unlike permeable air, the highly dense seawater walls would contain the entire blast, heat, lava and ash, until it was far out of the atmosphere._

 _The upset argument that followed focused on what would happen were the system to fail, which Ainz allowed to proceed until he finally interjected an obvious conclusion, that left alone, this would result in unparalleled catastrophy, so at least with this idea they had a chance. His only question was how fast should the acceleration be to evacuate the entire potential of the volcano? The conclusion was that it could not be too slow, or too fast, as the water cylinder could only take a limited amount of stress, even though that limited amount was great._

 _Magical mitigation of both earthquakes and tsunamis, and the rapid cleansing of the atmosphere and other preparations, in case it was a success, were prepared far outside the perimeter of where the giant cylinder was prepared to be. The Planetary item itself had to be deployed above the islands in a high, geosychronous orbit._

 _When activated, at first little could be seen as all the ocean currents changed their flow in the direction of the islands. Deep underneath the surface of the water, the arrival and compaction of the water was mostly unseen. But it was becoming an entirely unnatural state, far more like diamond than ice, and structurally far stronger than had it been diamond, made almost impervious by magic. It could only grow as fast as water flowing to it. It took hours to assemble to a great height, water rushing up its sides like a reverse waterfall, then compacting and hardening at the top of the cylinder, now looking like an immense smokestack. Finally by the next morning the immense thing had entered the lowest levels of space. By noon, the accelerator was ready to use. The tension was extreme._

 _A failure after acceleration would likely result in the destructive force as great as had a massive asteroid struck the New World. But when the second Planetary item was activated, the light shining through the water wall brightly illuminated the ocean to the horizons. And then the earthquake mitigation items automatically engaged to their maximum. Visual recordings later looked like the entire island chain had risen up from the ground, being torn apart and reassembled into an immense molten plug of rock, finally being pushed out to space._

 _Only then did a third, lesser but still important Planetary item come into play. It created destructive, self sustaining reactions on the near side of the giant plug, thousands of bursts every second that would nudge it away from the New World. The further away it went, the faster it would go, and the more of the plug would be consumed in the reaction_

 _What remained at the base of the cylinder was a great slab of hot detritus, a kilometer thick, soon deluged by the slowly reducing cylinder, as the compressed water at its top began to gradually decompress, a wall of water falling both outside and into the cylinder. A process that took many weeks for safety reasons, substantially slowing when the top of the cylinder had lowered to the level of the water inside. When finally the last of the cylinder, far below sea level, had returned to its natural state, what was left of the Hestatia chain of islands, was a broken, uneven block of rock and detritus, sterile and empty._

 _By Ainz' decree, the island was to be renamed Eden, made particularly fertile, and used to grow exotic and delicious foods for the world, to slowly pay it back for all the destruction it had caused._

 _Now began the arduous task of restoring the environment of the New World. Generations of scientists and casters, aided by increasing numbers of Shizu automatons, went forth to clean, repair and replace cities and towns, giant forests, lakes and seas. The ash itself helped somewhat, being rich in trace minerals in many places less fertile because of their lack in the soil. Spells that caused rain helped a lot to wash away the finer dust._

 _For her part, Albedo's great sadness was finally lifted, with the "return" of her beloved Ainz from his deep depression, which she decided to celebrate by persuading him to give her more children. Her amazing, unchanging resilience from childbirth never ceased to amaze him. Yet Ainz noted a change within himself, not because of that, but other reasons. His creation and use of Planetary Items had taken him into a new, higher heteromorphic race than Overlord, that he decided to call "Greater Overlord", a race that did not exist in YGGDRASIL, of still unknown properties._

 _It seemed to have a blend of high levels of Overlord General and Overlord Wiseman, but inexplicably lower levels of Overlord Kronos Master compared to the other two. Likewise it had several enigmatic unknown levels that somehow he would have to divine on his own. But for now he had to attend to his beloved wife Albedo, because there should always be time enough for love._


	6. Chapter 6

**_The 10,000 Year Reign of Overlord Ainz Ooal Gown, Part 6, Automatons and Panic_**

Little is known of the parents of Visau Micasa, a human child born in a rural, mostly human village, other than they died in a farm accident while he was still a baby, and no human family stepped forward to adopt him, as he had the medical condition called hypertrichosis, where hair grows all over the skin. Turned over to an orphanage of the Sisters of Nigredo, the other children teased him, and the extra affection shown him by the kind Sisters to make up for this made things worse, because the teasing was then based in jealousy. It was a relief when a kindly Werewolf couple asked to adopt him.

While their reputation for partying, the pursuit of pleasure and sloth, and sometimes great violence as warriors is true, they are also a profoundly affectionate, loving and energetic race who form tight family and tribal bonds. Calling him Visau-tan, even though he was just a human, they all loved him as a member of their family and tribe. While he couldn't possibly keep up with them, he remembered these childhood years as the happiest of his life. He also picked up the friendly nickname of "Seldom", as when inviting someone to play, or party, go running or whatever, their invitation was phrased as, "When was the last time you...?" Saying "seldom" was a polite way of declining the offer. But since this was his common reply, due to his human weakness, the nickname stuck. He rather liked it, and embraced it as his own.

Early on his demonstrated a rare genius at mathematics at their school, which was seen as amazing by the other children, the teachers, and the rest of his tribe, as few werewolves had any aptitude in such abstracts, but they still deeply respected and supported his ability as an almost magical art. Eventually his promotion from "Visau-tan" to "Visau-san" by his tribe, something a werewolf child could only obtain with great physical trial and effort, was an accolade that gave him great joy, the first recognition of his brilliance of many to come. His aptitude was so great that his tribe applied for a scholarship to one of the great colleges, and though he was still very young, based on his test results he was accepted immediately. They did require that he take a minor study as well, and he chose both psychology and automaton studies, which he brought within his sphere of genius. And so his career path was set in motion.

He still often returned to visit with his parents, tribe and friends, and they were always glad to see him, their "Man of Letters".

Elsewhere, Demiurge had an intractable problem. While the technology and magic involved in the creation of intelligent automatons was quite advanced, the automatons had long been handicapped by the development of emotion in their machine brains, which invariably led to unpredictable, and sometimes dangerous, problems in their behavior. The ensuing errors could delay, damage or ruin major projects, run up expenses far beyond budget, and in extreme cases injure or kill those around them.

Then Demiurge was given the thesis of an otherwise unknown PhD student, named Visau Micasa, who had devised impressive, if opaque to others, mathematical and automaton brain design conjectures that with the right kind of data could possibly analyze current inappropriate behavior, and predict the future behavior of automatons, and correct it if needed. Automatons having reached the level of intelligent things, much of this could be done by just talking to them, instead of reprogramming them or tearing them apart. That is, a means to overcome their emotional problems was by talking about their problems with someone who understood why they had such problems. Auto-psychology, he called it.

Thus Visau Micasa got a job offer from Demiurge himself to work at the Shizu Automaton Foundation, the premier designer and builder of automatons, as the first auto-psychologist. And he soon had created an entire new spectrum of research, leading to extraordinary advances in automaton technology. Fortunately, while his mathematical abstracts were beyond almost everyone, his technical descriptions of robotic brain problems and solutions were clear, concise and actionable.

Automatons themselves considered him a godlike being, possibly offering them evolution to greater and more powerful forms, or death by obsolescence. Eventually, though, he was able to give them the great gift of stable emotions, and for some even brain transplantation to better bodies if they could resolve their own dilemmas. Soon they were actively engaged in the design and improvement of each other, and became one of the more common races of the New World.

Eventually these technological leaps attracted the attention of Lord Ainz, with Demiurge regaling him with tales of his amazing Auto-psychologist and his adventures in fixing them by talking to them.

So Ainz tasked CZ2128 Delta, "Shizu" herself to work with him. As a creation of a supreme being on a virtual level, then made real and brought to life in the transfer to the New World, her technology was wholly alien, compared to New World automatons. But importantly, she did not develop emotions, so was not at risk from instability by them. He needed to discover the mathematics of her programming and hardware design, why she did not develop emotions and emotional vulnerability, if was it possible that she could develop emotions, and what then, would they cause her to develop psychological problems?

Ainz' motivations in this were complicated. CZ2128 Delta was not just an automaton, but she was also a guardian, and much like a beloved adopted daughter to Ainz. What Visau Micasa learned would not just advance the understanding of New World automatons, but of this YGGDRASIL automaton in particular, and the psychology of the other NPCs, complex created beings with unique psychologies. Because they, too, had been designed as programs like her, and then made real, given awareness and intelligence and the capacity to learn.

And finally, it might give glimpses into the future of the New World itself. The budget and resources Ainz set aside for this were enormous, for the simple reason that Visau Micasa was a short lived human, and whatever was learned likely was limited to the length of his life, taking many lifetimes for others to understand later. CZ2128 Delta would document everything he did in her unimpeachable memory.

Though Visau had ironed out all sorts of problems and potential problems in the automatons, he was still a young man, and even with his genius, the help of CZ2128 Delta resulted in so many discoveries, so fast, that he needed a staff to record them in a rational manner and forward them to the Foundation, where teams of scientists would analyze his findings. New technologies were being developed so rapidly that entire generations of automatons were skipped as they would have been quite obsolete by the time they were made. So he was surrounded by an automaton harem of research assistants, efforts to at least fractionally recreate CZ2128 Delta.

In the process, he discovered that CZ2128 Delta had far more advanced hardware than suspected, ages more advanced than current automaton technologies, but only had sufficient software to use just a fraction of her abilities. It made no sense, why would someone make such a premium automaton, yet limit it to just a fraction of its capabilities?

Having developed a fractional list of what CZ2128 Delta's hardware could do with the proper programming, Visau felt it necessary to brief Ainz directly, as he had requested and been required of him, to tell of his discoveries, the changes he could make in her, one of which was special, to ask if she should be given emotions, then monitored for stability. Ainz answered in the affirmative.

But Ainz was also practical in a way that Visau did not anticipate and could not answer. "Seldom, is it conceivable that CZ2128 Delta could be duplicated?" But then he went much further. "If put in a realistic body, could that duplicate be made indistinguishable from a non-automaton creature? One with the same, different, or even greater ordinary powers and abilities than the creature?" A race of automatons that looked like other races.

While it was impossible at present, Visau spent years documenting a step by step process, which maximized the use of known automaton technologies, and micro-analyzing new technologies that would have to be created, to achieve those goals, of making more automatons like CZ2128 Delta. His estimates were that it could be accomplished in hundreds of years, an acceptable timetable.

Such was his greatest expression of genius.

Little did he know that Ainz' thoughts were much less lofty, just to have reproductions made of his fellow supreme beings as gifts to his loyal guardians, intelligent automaton toys in the image of their creators, to be their friends and companions. But he was willing to wait for quality.

Eventually though, Demiurge was clear to Visau that his motivations were that he wanted to create and send thousands of extremely powerful automatons in very fast spaceships to explore the galaxy, with an eye to territorial advance, colonization, and if necessary, conquest. That they and their spaceships would explore the boundless reaches, but also, if needed, make an impenetrable wall against even fleets of invaders, and perform far more important duties, though he did not say what. Visau admitted that he did not know if this was possible, but he estimated that with of a CZ2128 Delta race, the Foundation might be able to accomplish such a feat.

Having accomplishes all his goals and far more, Ainz expressed his gratitude to him for this and many other things, and offered him his own research foundation, funding and staff, mostly advanced automatons, for his next assignment.

Released from his task, with the new variable of the assumption of large numbers of automatons as part of society, the creation of a mathematical model to discern the future of the New World would be a goal that he, and only he, could devote himself to for the rest of his life. In this, with his partner CZ2128 Delta, her superior emotions, intellect, and many new capabilities engaged and functional, he would someday create an edifice, a temple of the future, adjacent to Nazarick, where at intervals, notifications of anticipated possible major sociological events would be predicted long after his death.

For her part, CZ2128 Delta's overriding emotion was adoration of her beloved Lord Ainz, which she could now express to him.

For Seldom, in his old age, he wanted to live his final days with the people he loved, his tribe, much larger with a blend of other races, as it was now popular for werewolf parents to enlarge their families by adoption. His final honorific, which gave him great joy, was that he was to be remembered as Visau-kami by all, a beneficial spirit that blessed their village, whose prayer was familial love. And who helped school children to learn mathematics. And once a year, of course, they would have a celebration, feast and party in his honor, as is the way of werewolves.

 _The small adventure began with a discreet-as-it-could-be shopping trip by Albedo, to purchase garments and accessories for the children of Nazarick, who were numerous and powerful, but as is the want of children, still attracted to dirt and mud, needing clothes that both fit and were appropriate to their station. With her second item box only half filled, one of her handmaidens approached her, that there was a disruption on a nearby avenue, advising her to retreat to safety. Mildly insulted by this last remark, she noted that her servant was new, and had never seen her in armor, so resolved that in the near future she would ask her to carry her helmet, if she could, which she probably couldn't._

 _With that, Albedo dispatched a shadow demon to find out what was happening. The demon reported back that a man had been screaming in the street, and that elven police had arrived to see if he needed assistance. His level of rage was such that they detained him to cool down for a while. And Albedo's curiosity was piqued._

 _After a routine interview with an elven police sergeant named Verdoso, the man, whose identity was never determined, as he had not broken Ainz' law, was released and took off. Some time later the sergeant was then summoned by his supervisor, and almost fainted when introduced to Empress Albedo, who wished to speak with him._

 _(From those days, the name Verdoso entered the human races tongues to mean roughly "the extremes of fortune or luck", though its precise meaning required context, much like the expression "a personable Orc", who while affable, frustratingly distracts others from complex thought or creativity with mindless small talk until the moment is passed.)_

 _Sergeant Verdoso had no clear answer, as the man had ranted at length in many directions without expressly saying what he was ranting about in the street or why, a random ranter, which was the wrong thing to say to Empress Albedo, who asked him to come to Nazarick to search for clues, a terrifying prospect, yet an honor reserved for the elites of elven society. Albedo's concern was genuine, as there might be a tangible threat if what so unbalanced that man went beyond him to infect others within the realm._

 _The butlers and maids of the area, given the rare task to report any unusual discontent, knowing of none through their employ or in the marketplace, discreetly scoured the news and gossip looking for clues. Finding none, but loathe to report it as such to the Empress, they suggested that if it existed it was concealed to a great extent, far beyond their perception. An embarrassing confession. And so, Albedo decided to create a small network of provocateurs, to see if they could smoke them out. Fortunately or unfortunately, as the case might have been, this meant that Sergeant Verdoso, who had told Albedo the honest truth, was effectively a prisoner in the elven paradise of the_ 6th _floor of Nazarick until the situation resolved. The best place to be and the worst circumstances to be there._

 _The provocateurs, on the other hand, created more problems than they solved. The locals created several expletives to describe the "trouble-making foreigners", who though they were always quick to buy drinks and meals, would always ruin the gift by trying to create unwanted strife. The stream of legitimate complaints to the elven police, that they were directed to downplay or even ignore, damaged their morale. Among themselves they blamed Sergeant Verdoso for having brought this royal mess down on their heads._

 _It is a good rule of thumb that when the authorities do not take the side of the honest people against criminals, or worse, when the authorities take the side of the criminals against the people, vigilantism results. And though it has a bad reputation, vigilance movements try very hard to be non-violent and follow the process, and will disintegrate if their demands are met at any point. Only if pushed to their breaking point do they become violent. Even then their violence is measured, not chaotic. They are usually not an unruly mob._

 _Shopkeepers began to bar the provocateurs, only to be met with accusations of violating the spirit of Ainz' law against racial strife. Less a crime than a severe social faux pas, some shopkeepers shuttered their businesses rather than face condemnation. For her part, having gone so far as to remove those parts of the annual municipal report so that they would not trouble Ainz, and frequent reports of nothing to report from her hirelings, she began feeling remorse, even despair, from her lack of trust, or really betrayal, of her beloved. Her resolution to end it and confess happened at almost the same time the frustrated provocateurs decided on their own to cause a violent attack against the citizens aligned against them, to force the real enemy to show itself. But they significantly underestimated the loyalty and anger of the populace._

 _Ainz was directing a forgettable meeting involving boring financial matters, with a group of accountants, with a typically overly dramatic presentation beside him by the flamboyant Pandora's Actor, in his role as treasurer, when Albedo burst into the room, bawling and crying and babbling apologies. The accountants didn't even need to be told to leave, doing so like there was a fire, after of course collecting their paperwork and range walking to the door in an orderly fashion._

 _And seeing her histrionics, for whatever reason, Pandora's Actor redoubled his own, and volume, accompanied by arm waving and wild gesticulations. Ainz sighed, reminded yet again that all of this was probably his fault, somehow._

 _For the most part, he was of course confused between the unclear but intense display of feminine emotion and the equally intense accounting briefing, which immobilized him until communication came through about the attack of the provocateurs in progress, giving him an opportunity to halt things._

 _The assumption of an armed revolt or revolution sent all three in different directions: Pandora's Actor to alert the already alerted defenses, then off to the treasury. Albedo to try and muster the defenders already at their stations, while desperately trying to discreetly contact and evacuate the provocateurs. And Ainz finding himself in the eye of the hurricane but unable to get details about anything. Albedo was barely able to get the provocateurs out of there before they were beaten up. Thus ended the revolution and good riddance, though it took months to reestablish the peace and calm in that city._

 _Eventually, Albedo rationalized her panic to Ainz that she was probably pregnant again, though she wasn't, and had never had any emotional problems when pregnant so many times before. And Ainz took it at face value, not wanting to make waves. For his part, Pandora's actor tidied up the already clean Treasury several times to soothe his upset, which it did. When all was said and done, Ainz was just glad the meeting had ended early._


	7. Chapter 7

_The day began with the arrival of a group of men and women at the reception area outside of Nazarick. Noteworthy because their skin was covered with shiny metallic gold paint. They explained that having a thin conductive metal coating was needed to accomplish their passage in time, as in time travel, they said to the incredulous receptions director. Their reason for doing so was to seek an audience with Lord Cocytus. They were disappointed that Cocytus was attending a major sporting event a great distance away, that their information that he was at Nazarick that day must have been in error._

 _However, the receptions director, who had lied about Cocytus' absence, not trusting the Gold Men, assured them that even if he was present, they would still need to be pre-interviewed by Cocytus' "second secretary", who was in fact a skilled psychic interrogator of the "Second Organization", a powerful and shadowy security apparatus within Nazarick and beyond. They had been created on the strong recommendation of the Maatha-mose of Bolb, who advised that much of the Empire and even Nazarick itself were deeply vulnerable to the higher classes of psychic attack and needed experts to confront such attacks. As such the mind of the mentalist leader which had joined with the Maatha-mose and totally controlled it, recommended the other five mentalists in her group to form the core of this organization. It had grown steadily since those days into a formidable, but invisible force._

 _The interview itself was a strange thing, happening on two levels. The Gold Men were indeed time travelers, who lived in a civilization outside of space where they could both live in material wealth, yet transit time easily through portals called windows, unlike the gates used to transit space. They sought out Cocytus as "The Greatest of Fighters", to teach them how to fight, because they faced an unknown but powerful threat that was thought beyond their fighting skills._

 _However, at the same time of this conversation, the Second Organization agent carefully examined their minds and their brains. What he found was disturbing. Their brains had been crudely manipulated to delete much information, about themselves, their lives, their motives, the list went on and on. The implications of this showed a great degree of ruthlessness and belligerence. These were not defensive alterations, but designed to deceive mind readers. And while most information about this and their time travel technology had been thoroughly scrubbed, it had been done on an individual level in their minds. They did not imagine that someone could examine all their brains at the same time and compare fragments to recreate the truth._

 _Yet several things were very clear. The first was that they had armies of millions of fighters and large amounts of physical weapons, but only a limited understanding of psychic ability, and almost no knowledge of magic, relying more on treachery to achieve supremacy. What was far more important was that they were planning to invade and conquer the New World, after assassinating its leaders, to ruthlessly exploit its wealth. They wanted to know, by studying Cocytus, how capable the defenders might be against an occupying horde of Golden men, as it methodically enslaved and slaughtered all who lived there._

 _So at the same time as the interview, the agent very carefully composed a plan in his mind to be sent by telepathic message directly to Ainz Ooal Gown, with copies to a few critical others. Thus the defensive wheels were set in motion, even before the very first part of the Golden Men's scheme prior to planetary invasion had begun._

 _It was vital that Cocytus delay the Golden Men as long as possible, while giving away no useful information about physical combat or magic. He was aided in this by Shalltear Bloodfallen's writers who in short order generated volumes of useless imaginary martial arts training, some of which were based on interpretive dance while wearing militaristic costumes._

 _Given the information the Second Organization agent had obtained, Demiurge's scientists not only were able to recreate the window technology used by the Golden Men, but to thoroughly and discreetly test it, to discover its limitations, and to improve on it in several ways, especially how to block its use by the invaders. And once this was done, not even the assembled guardians could have stopped Emperor Ainz from leading his apocalypse._

 _His anger at the Golden Men went beyond horror itself. Even the great invasion of Nazarick had not incited such darkness and evil within him. There were no torments and tortures too horrific for them to endure, even from the realm of dreams. He wanted their suffering and destruction to be legendary._

 _For a world at peace for many generations, the preparations for total war came together with great speed. For unlike the treacherous Golden Men, reliant on their single advantage, but otherwise untested in real battle, all of the races of the New World were creatures of war and fighting. And had either an invasion or counter invasion taken place, it would result in a bloodbath of the contemptible Golden Men, their villainy worthless in the face of extraordinary warriors and casters able to summon forth Tier Magic, led by those wielding Super Tier Magic, while their minds were shredded, and their bodies and souls consumed by beings beyond their ken._

 _But circumstances intervened._

 _Disappearing from their accommodations near the gymnasium where they were taught by Cocytus, the absence of the closely watched Golden Men initially set off alarms, but less so than when a group twice their number appeared at the reception area of Nazarick. Silver in color, they knelt and bowed their heads to the floor, over and over again in the direction of Nazarick, chanting their praise and loyalty to Ainz Ooal Gown._

 _Losing patience with the assembly, the receptions director demanded to know the purpose of their actions, not revealing the presence of many heavily armed guards encircling them, ready and willing to slaughter every one with a word. The leader of the Silver Men presented him with a letter. Addressed to Emperor Ainz Ooal Gown, yet from Emperor Ainz Ooal Gown, and with his official seal, a magical thing impossible to duplicate._

 _After thorough inspection, its seal was broken, and its contents transcribed to be delivered to Ainz._

 _It described how a minor character among the Golden Men, a future historian, had made a momentous discovery. Typically such people were unimportant to them, as the timeline of the Golden Men was arrogantly imagined to never diverge, from its origins to its eventual galactic empire. But in this case, he discovered something had already happened, a major alteration in the flow of time, with the arrival of their advance scouts to this New World. The Golden Men had conquered other worlds before to no consequence, but an unknown element had caused a massive rift in the timeline. The divergence was so powerful that eventually it superseded every possible future of the Gold Men._

 _It was very fortuitous that this historian had first reported this rift to his colleagues before exploring it with a personal viewing device, which would place the viewer in a virtual reality of a timeline event. Because after doing so, according to his family, he soon gave off a blood curdling scream before collapsing. A physically frail man, the trauma to him was so great that after a few days he died._

 _He had seen the ultimate anger of Ainz Ooal Gown. Scenes of utter carnage, destruction, despair, and the annihilation of his people in ways so horrifying and terrible that his mind had been torn apart. But his viewing device continued to record the events since only he could order it to stop, until his security passwords were used by others to do so._

 _It took dozens of his colleagues many days of analysis of his recordings, punctuated with painful sickness and despair, before they could even describe the parts they had seen. The public response to this was to depose all of their leaders and anyone else who had advocated this war, and to begin an immediate diplomatic effort with their enemy, throwing themselves on the mercy of Ainz Ooal Gown, and begging to be made a vassal state in his empire. Given the immediacy of war, they decided to entreat Emperor Ainz in the future to explain it to himself in the present. Likewise, to reduce the possibility of being killed on sight, they would immediately retrieve the spies and assassins already sent, and would paint themselves with metallic silver, rather than gold, though it was a much rarer metal to them._

 _As an offering to their new Lord, they provided an unedited copy of the viewing device recordings of what their historians had seen, figuring that such a monster as he would find it entertaining. And in this they were right._

 _From that point forward, time itself was under the domain of Ainz Ooal Gown. But unlike the metal men, he only rarely and judiciously took advantage of this access, for his scientists had discovered that invariably, those who tampered with time too much brought about their own destruction. So he encouraged most of their populace to emigrate to an otherwise uninhabited pastoral world they had taken, to live a less prosperous, but far more peaceful existence, with just a small number remaining outside of space to maintain accommodations in case Ainz wished to easily transfer millions of people between worlds, which was the final advice he had given to himself._

 _Planetary surveys are for the most part rather dull and scientific endeavors. Small, fast, automaton piloted reconnaissance ships would scout out possible habitable worlds, and planets that were good prospects for habitation would then be paid a visit for a detailed ground survey by a major warship. While for many years, Lord Demiurge had enjoyed such surveys, with the idea that even if they were barren now, it might be possible to resurrect previously extinct species to add to the menagerie worlds created for that purpose, but more and more, he had more pressing business back in the New World, and would not allow himself the frivolity of holidays._

 _But he made it clear that he was to be notified immediately under three circumstances: that a planet had what was or could become a tangible threat of any kind, or was scientifically advanced; that it was a colony of a larger organization, federation of planets, or empire; or that it had artifacts of value, scientific, magical or indeterminate._

 _Battleship "Dark Star", a Thirteen Heroes X-Class Warship, 113-8, under "Four Bar" (Captain) Zutil Shasha, discovered a planet of the latter type. It had barely made the cut, being too far from its star, a cloud covered mostly icy world. Being a Lizardman, the Captain was content to let his skilled cold weather adapted team do the survey in the freezing dark. A capable bunch, they didn't need to look far before they didn't just find artifacts, but battlefields full of them. And many of them were imbued or capable of being so, with various amounts of magic, though absent were any skeletal remains. They were advised to keep a close watch for any signs of spawned monsters or other threats, and Captain Shasha raised the alert level of the ship to watchful._

 _Fitting the last circumstance, Demiurge arrived there in his personal ship in just under a week. In the meantime, the survey crew had discovered a very well built small stone building, within a noxious swampy area, built on a rocky berm in such a way as to protect it from erosion. Not designed as a dwelling, it could best be described as a temple, or even a monument. On a cut stone within were several pieces of broken metal that could be assembled into a circle. And these too were imbued with magic, of a stronger kind. An inscription in an unknown language was on the stone._

 _As soon as he arrived on this world, Demiurge felt ill at ease, uncomfortable, apprehensive. The more he tried to examine or suppress these feelings, the more they intensified. As the survey crew leader displayed various artifact weapons, Demiurge started to develop a sense of unparalleled yet unfocused dread, as if confronted by a shadowy demonic presence so vast that even he, a demon lord, was intimidated, as if the weapons, everything he saw was screaming a warning of impending danger just over the horizon. Then again, everything about it was strangely familiar and important, but just out of reach of his memory. Puzzling, indeed._

 _He was glad to leave the briefing area to head towards the stone building, and entering it, for once he felt his tension subside a little. Looking at the untouched metal fragments on the cut stone, he could see an inscription carved into the rock. An archaic language, he vaguely recognized it, trying to decipher it. After some seconds it made sense. "Unto the last we obeyed our masters honorably." He appreciated and understood the poetic sentiment._

 _But Demiurge could not remember what language it was. And then he looked at the pieces of metal and realized what they were. The broken crown of a Tuveg Priest Lord. It had been a very long time ago when last he had seen a Tuveg, but he could not place the context. Such a crown would either only be broken by violence in battle, or destroyed by the Priest Lord himself were his tribe to be wiped out and unable to respawn._

 _Right then Demiurge saw a large inscription on the wall in front of him that had not been there a moment before. Reading it, and knowing what it said, convinced him beyond any doubt that he must be under attack from a mind control weapon that had overcome his defenses. The inscription was not true, could not be true, but if it was..._

 _This realization made him lose much of his composure, and he was about to bark an evacuation order to the survey crew when he realized they were no longer with him, and the small stone building he had been standing in was much larger. A sense of panic set in._

 _"_ _Demiurge?", said a loud voice behind him._

 _He spun around, then gave off a piercing shriek, and collapsed. This was all that the survey crew leader and his assistants saw. Demiurge had fainted and could not be wakened. The survey crew evacuated him with a rare haste, taking his ship as well, while the Captain and the crew of the Dark Star went on full battle alert._

 _A Thirteen Heroes X-Class Warship at full emergency speed, at full battle alert and punching through gates back to the New World lit up the defensive network throughout the sector. Captain Shasha was not someone to be trifled with in the best of times, and with Lord Demiurge in his sick bay he was in a planet killing mood._

 _As soon as they arrived near the New World, Emperor Ainz himself issued orders to the Dark Star to deliver Demiurge directly to Nazarick. His primary intent was to check the NPC list, to make sure that Demiurge was not being mind controlled. He was not. So why was he comatose? Was that even possible? With such a mysterious and unknown physiology, the finest doctors, some of whom were the best diagnostic casters, were perplexed. He bore no sign of injury, inside or out, but he was in a deep, persistent coma._

 _Ainz pondered long and hard before consulting with the Maatha-mose. Because of Demiurge's extreme negativity, there was no way that he, or Ainz himself, would dare set foot on the island of Bolb. So it was decided that a very risky maneuver was to be carried out. Because of his tremendous power, he was first to be encased in a thick, metal sarcophagus, form fitting to the shape of his body, with only his head exposed. Then the sarcophagus was to be magically sealed by Ainz himself, so Demiurge could not use magic to escape._

 _The sarcophagus was to be put in a special room in the forward hold of a ship that would anchor just inside the safety perimeter of the waters around Bolb. Then a member of the Second Organization would depart from Bolb with a piece of the Maatha-mose itself, that would be applied to the forehead of Demiurge. It would register a duplicate of the mind of Demiurge, which was so powerful that it was thought that it would destroy that piece in just a few minutes. But before that could happen, it would be attached to a much larger piece of the Maatha-mose, several tons worth, in the other ship. The original piece would still be destroyed, but no worse to the whole than the number of neurons a human being would destroy with a sneeze. The plan was well considered, and as it turned out, absolutely necessary._

 _To begin with, as soon as the ship entered the perimeter, Demiurge began to thrash about in the sarcophagus. Unconscious, his body acted on its own, as did some of his magic. The Second Organization agent applied a typically sized piece used for someone who was violently insane. It explosively evaporated in just a few seconds. A second piece, the size of a large man's fist lasted most of a minute before it, too, disintegrated and was gone. The third piece was as large as a pillow, and while it was able to register a duplicate of his mind, the quick thinking agent had to borrow some insulated gloves in the next cabin over just to carry it. And even so, by the time he was able to drop it onto the mass in his ship, even with the gloves, both his hands were badly blistered and his facial hair had been singed._

 _Back at Bolb, the crew was barely able to lower the increasingly hot mass through the access hole into the main body, and when the two rejoined, the Maatha-mose screamed in pain. It had never consumed the creation of a Supreme Being, and even a copy of such a creation made it instantly resolve to never imagine doing so again. Demiurge was indeed the child of his creator, Ulbert Alain Odle, and imbued with his world view and fascination with everything evil. The Maatha-mose, even under the control of its uniquely talented mentalist, was the first New World being to have visions of both the reality and fantasy of the World of 2138, its brutal and horrific history, from the mind of Odle, preserved in the subconscious mind of Demiurge, which it interpreted as the domain of the Supreme Beings._

 _After it had the information from within the "contaminated mass", it spat out the rapidly decaying mass before it could harm its body even more. Its two profound takes was first, of the brilliance of Ulbert Alain Odle, who had made a very strong mental wall of rationality within Demiurge, separate from his monstrous ID subconsciousness, so while bits of it might move into his conscious mind, it would never overwhelm him. Its second take was that, even for such a powerful creature as the Maatha-mose, it made it question its objectivity. It would take it a very long time to recovery its equanimity, so could no longer directly help. So it recommended to Ainz that Demiurge be transported to the secret Second Organization base on Papura Island._

 _Long under the protection of Ainz Ooal Gown, to protect the primitive peoples within, and restricted to a handful of anthropologists willing to travel through mountainous jungle on foot, as they could not travel there either magically or by conveyance, it made the perfect secret base of the Second Organization as well. As the Maatha-mose had looked at a copy of the whole of Demiurge's mind, many of these experts could very methodically walk through just small parts of that minefield, not to try to understand him, but just to discover what could waylay such a powerful creature, and to very carefully reduce it so that Demiurge could wake up. The mental block that confined his consciousness was fortunately located in his rational part of his mind._

 _The training for a Second Organization agent was a dungeon called The Labyrinth, on Papura. Unlike an ordinary maze, the route to take within was clearly marked, and had it been an ordinary maze, it could have been completed in an hour or so. But the very best agent to pass through it took 255 days, with the average transit time of about a year. If a candidate failed to make it through, they would die of starvation, and many had suffered that fate. So to reach the caches of food and water within were essential. Kept in plain view, a candidate would have to pass through endless gauntlets of mental attacks and problems to solve, to progress by inches at times. "If the Labyrinth ever seems friendly or kind, you are already dead," went the warning._

 _Yet after that torturous experience, agents regarded it as the highlight of their lives, and so, many vied to enter the mind of Demiurge, a being so powerful that a mere copy of his mind had damaged their "mother", the Maatha-mose. In a way, this was the gateway to their entire purpose of being, that their gauntlet of the Labyrinth, made from the psyche of every non-YGGDRASIL being in the New World, was just their first day of their schooling, compared to the vastness of Demiurge's subconscious, which could swallow all of them whole with just one bite._

 _The strongest and most disciplined of them were tasked to prevent any unauthorized attempts at entry to his subconscious, an irresistible but deadly attraction to all in the Organization, while the few most expert at brain manipulation were tasked with finding the block and slowly examine and reduce it. To tamper or explore his mind outside of this tiny, rational part was forbidden under penalty of death by their leaders. But they resolved after the fact to let Demiurge know, physically and to his face, without any psychic involvement at all, that they were his healers and if he so chose, they were more than willing to map and reveal his subconscious mind to him, hidden from his rational mind, if any part of it troubled him or if he had questions as to the great and dangerous information hidden within, at the risk of their own lives. But this was for the future, as they still had much work to do with their current problem of waking him up._

 _Increasingly impatient with the slow, cautious process, Lord Ainz was actually surprised with the arrival of a top Second Organization agent in person, something they almost never did, preferring telepathic communication. And very respectfully, the agent informed him that the slow erosion of the block was still continuing, but they had discovered a word , one of many, of unknown meaning that defined the substance of the block. They agreed the safest way to convey such a powerful word was by writing it down on paper and delivering it under maximum security to Lord Ainz himself. They dared not convey it than by any means other than that crude form._

 _On seeing it, and Lord Ainz' expression of shock, the agent was thrown into anguish, because he would not, likely could not, commit the mortal sin of trying to enter Lord Ainz' mind, his first trained inclination. To do so was instant death. So he discreetly writhed in mental anguish before being excused to leave with a wave of his master's hand. But Lord Ainz said nothing, lost in his own thoughts._

 _The word on the paper was "Helheim"._


	8. Chapter 8

_"_ _Unto the last we obeyed our masters honorably."_

 _Many miles off the coast of Papura was an uninhabited and unnamed atoll, and on it was left the sarcophagus of the soon to awaken Demiurge. Those who left it there made their escape almost not quickly enough to avoid his unbridled rage. The magic binding the coffin dissolved, then the metal itself exploded with great force, and Demiurge emerged with the ferocity of a dragon. In short order, the atoll was somewhat the worse for wear. Then a blast protected buried capsule emerged from the ground, and a booming recording of Lord Ainz repeated over and over a simple message: "Demiurge, I order you to return to Nazarick immediately!" The trip back was hurried but unencumbered, his flight path cleared of any other traffic, and watched at a safe distance from the ground and relayed to the authorities._

 _When he entered the throne room, Albedo, Rubedo, Victim, Pandora's Actor, Shalltear Bloodfallen and Cocytus were present. Lord Ainz was not. "Demiurge! Prostrate yourself before the Throne of Kings!," said Albedo, with an angry command voice. Only then did she check the NPC list, for the second time, to insure that Demiurge had not been subverted. He had not. There was still a pregnant pause before Lord Ainz made his entry._

 _After briefly conferring with Albedo, Ainz seated himself on the throne and ordered Demiurge to rise._

 _"_ _I have already spoken with (newly promoted) Rear Admiral Shasha and the survey crew who were with you when you were stricken, but I have yet to have sufficient answers to our satisfaction", said Ainz, not using a royal 'we', but implying the other guardians were on high alert. "But first, let me welcome you back, and I hope you are in good health, and able to explain what happened during this expedition. Yet know that I am not pleased at all with any turn of events that incapacitates one of my guardians."_

 _"_ _My Lord," said Demiurge, "from the moment I set foot on that world, what I felt would can only be described as an overwhelming sense of deja vu, and I now think that among the guardians, perhaps even for you, Lord Ainz, this would not be unique, as I believe that this world was once our home in Helheim._

 _A feeling best described as an "electric chill" was experienced by all in the throne room. Every guardian remembered the Great Tomb of Nazarick in Helheim as their first home. Perhaps the least inviting of the worlds of YGGDRASIL, chosen for that very reason by the Supreme Beings of Ainz Ooal Gown as their impenetrable sanctuary. Lord Ainz was fully aware the attraction his servants might feel, to return to what they might think of as the place of their birth._

 _Demiurge continued. "Once I entered the small stone building there, and divined that which was laid before me was the broken crown of a Tuveg Priest Lord, I suddenly saw an inscription that had not been on the wall in front of me just a moment before. It said that this monument marked the sacred location where once stood the Great Tomb of Nazarick!"_

 _The electric chill was redoubled with a palpable tension. Ainz felt like squirming in his seat, but could only imagine what emotions were flowing through the guardians right now._

 _"_ _I was struck with confusing yet impossible guilt, that when Nazarick was taken away along with all of us, these Tuveg kept to their station, and probably called forth to every one of their kind in the swamp to defend a gaping hole that had been Nazarick, against hordes of attackers, until they had been slaughtered, to the last, unable to respawn." This set off alarms within Demiurge, as such feelings were alien to him, indifferent to the slaughter of unimportant foes or allies._

 _"_ _That would have broken Queen Aura's heart!", Shalltear chimed in, to an angry stare from Albedo, before she softened her glare with the realization that Shalltear was right. The Tuveg had been Aura's charges, and she cared for them deeply like her other creatures._

 _Demiurge continued, "The few Tuveg that survived, knowing their days were numbered, built the monument, not to themselves, but to honor the Supreme Beings of Nazarick." This hit home to all the other guardians, as being abandoned by the Supreme Beings had long been their greatest fear. Even Ainz could feel their disheartening change in mood._

 _So Ainz interjected, "But this does not explain what happened to you." He was desperate to change the subject, however slightly._

 _Demiurge explained, "On seeing the writing, that had appeared before me, I realized that I might be under serious mental attack, an attempt to control my mind, so I was about to order a retreat, when I realized that I appeared to no longer be in the stone monument, but alone, and by what seemed to me, within a corridor in Nazarick. Right then I heard someone call my name, and felt a profound shiver down my spine. And turning about, I stood face to face with a very angry Lord Odle! I screamed and that was the last thing I remember."_

 _The idea that another Supreme Being was extant left those in the Throne Room speechless. So Demiurge added, "Of course I realize now that this could not be, but at the time I thought it was no mere apparition, but the real Lord Ulbert Alain Odle, my creator. In retrospect, an impressive illusion, one that I did not think was possible."_

 _Ainz, as was typical for him, was wrapped up in his thoughts about this, pondering the possibility that however improbable, his friend Ulbert might somehow still be alive. But Albedo faced the prospect with cold calculation, even bloody mindedness. Her thoughts were how to convince Ainz to let her reassemble her squad, that to her purposes was to seek and destroy any other Supreme Beings, and to travel to this world on the unlikely possibility that one or more of them somehow dwell there? It was a truly savage part of her personality infrequently explored yet hazardous beyond measure._

 _At this point, Ainz ordered a pause in the briefing. He had long understood the risks of strong emotions in his guardians, so each in turn, other than Demiurge, he demanded to know their thoughts and feelings. Cocytus and Shalltear seemed least perturbed, seeing Nazarick as their home and having little attachment to where it had formerly been, and fundamentally enjoying their lives now much more than they ever had before. Victim was curious, as they had never ventured outside Nazarick, other than briefly being carried to buildings in the New World and back._

 _Pandora's Actor was generally disinterested, other than by the possible acquisition of another world by the Empire. This made Ainz slightly wince inside, wondering if that was a desire for 'lebensraum', a holdover from his original design. That feeling was dispelled by just glancing at Albedo, having that hard expression and penetrating gaze that he had learned to fear as dangerous. It was not eased by looking at Rubedo, who he wondered, had learned to use a "geisha face" from Aureole Omega, to conceal her emotions._

 _Breaking the silence, Demiurge added, "There is more, but I cannot discuss it in the presence of the other guardians, but to Lord Ainz alone. It is not a matter of trust, but of a severe threat to Nazarick."_

 _All the other guardians were outraged and agitated at the suggestion, especially Albedo, who was livid, and Ainz himself was taken aback. "Let me apologize in advance," he continued, "but I beg you to accept my rational judgment that it is not you, as loyal guardians, but the information I must convey, which is the risk. It is solely up to Lord Ainz to determine how much, and to whom, it will eventually be disseminated."_

 _"_ _I respectfully insist that if Lord Ainz will accept it, before you go, that I be magically, possibly physically bound, as I cannot with certainty say that even I am fully aware of the situation, and may unknowingly represent a threat myself, because of this information." The emotional impact of this last statement to the other guardians cannot be described, and sent them reeling, caught up in their own thoughts and fears._

 _Ainz then issued a directive, first that Demiurge sit on a chair in his presence, which under almost any other circumstance would have been an insulting breach of decorum, permitted only as a special indulgence by a Lord for a subordinate who was either crippled or very old and infirm. Then Lord Ainz cast a litany of spells that encased Demiurge in complex magical restraints limited to that spot on the floor. He further cast spells against surveillance, and cautioned the other guardians, especially Shalltear, to not attempt to bypass them. She briefly expressed her annoyance at being singled out once again._

 _Finally, Ainz ordered the Throne Room cleared of all but he and Demiurge. Albedo was furious at being separated from her husband and Lord, but complied._

 _After all was done, Demiurge began. "For no reason should Albedo, Rubedo, or Nigredo, individually, or together, ever be permitted to go to that world. For them to do so would be a hundredfold worse than the eruption of_ _Hephaestus." This riveted Lord Ainz attention._

 _He then apologized and admitted he had been disingenuous in front of Lord Ainz and the other guardians, but necessarily, as he could no longer attest to the unreserved loyalty of any of the guardians, including himself, and could not risk giving out key information in front of them._

 _He said that, in truth, he had quickly recognized the planet as Helheim, and was amazed, more than unnerved, to have finally returned to the home of Nazarick. He was a little disappointed to see only a depression where at one point there must have been a great crater formed by its disappearance, almost erased by the swamp over time. But seeing the detritus of so many great battles, fought over a hole in the ground? Likewise, the puzzling lack of skeletons or exoskeletons, yet all the weaponry left where it fell. That the dead might be brought back was obvious, but who would be indifferent to such more or less valuable gear?_

 _Even at first glance he knew that the stone building monument had probably been built by the Supreme Beings, but outside of the easy visual range of Nazarick, as they did so discreetly on an unused approach of tactical disadvantage. This piqued his interest._

 _His assumption was that it was a trap, and it was, but with unfamiliar magic attached to it. But it was so much more. It seemed to be designed to reveal its secrets to some of the Supreme Beings, but not to others._

 _The subtle traces of those allowed it secrets included his creator, Ulbert Alain Odle, as well as the Supreme Beings Bellriver, Punitto Moe, Luci Fer and Tabula Smaragdina, who seemed to use the building as both a meeting place, and later as a laboratory for extraordinary experiments. While no obvious indicators existed of this, Demiurge somehow knew, though he had no conscious memory of this place at all._

 _Those blocked from entry included Lord Touch Me, though he had never attempted entry, and Lord Temperance, and perhaps others whose identities had been concealed, who had tried repeatedly to get in and failed. But why would this group of Supreme Beings exclude others?_

 _He suspected that something within him had activated a notification device in the monument. By being able to read the Tuveg message on the stone, it acted as a password and turned on the message on the wall before him. This message did not say anything at all about Nazarick, which he said was a colorful deception for the other guardians. In fact it was an execution order directed at him specifically. It also engaged a much more powerful part of his subconscious mind._

 _From his point of view, right then someone called his name behind him. Turning about, he saw, projected from his own mind, Lord Odle, whose angry appearance only lasted until Demiurge's authorization to be there, indirectly from Lord Momonga, a trusted individual, indicated that Demiurge had not be co-opted by someone else using the admin function on his programming. This also explained what had happened to entire armies sent to destroy the place. Magic like Negative Burst, but at a much more powerful scale disintegrated all of them, if not their weapons, as soon as they attacked the building. Why they had come to do so, and who they were, remained unknown._

 _Then Demiurge was hit with a tremendous burst of data locked within him. It was what knocked him out, as it flooded from his subconscious mind into his rational mind, and installed a plug, or block, in his rational mind that would give him enough time to analyze that data and act accordingly, before he had regained control. Until that block was gone, his mind would be active, but he would be physically inert, though his body and his magic, without direction from his will, would be able to fight off all but the most powerful attacks. It did not account for supportive individuals just moving him for medical care, which did not register as an attack._

 _Ainz was amazed. His friends had somehow hacked the YGGDRASIL servers, and inserted an incredible Trojan horse into Demiurge without a dev or admin knowing about it. But how, or more importantly, why?_

 _Demiurge admitted that he did not know who had devised this scheme, but believed its impetus had been the murder of Bellriver. Both the radical Luci Fer, and Ulbert Alain Odle, bitterly wanted revenge, but strategist Punitto Moe likely planned the elaborate and dangerous scheme, which could only be carried out by the brilliant technologist Tabula Smaragdina. Lord Temperance, they suspected, was a spy seeking to discover if Bellriver had shared his evidence with any of the others, which would have likely result in their murder as well._

 _Their scheme was made possible with the discovery, within YGGDRASIL, of an unbelievable capability to physically materialize virtual data. How and why this existed, even the devs did not know, as it was not their machination. Creating inert physical objects from data was not particularly hard, but creating consciousness, intelligence and awareness was truly amazing, a magnificent achievement, not technologically possible as far as Ainz knew. Yet what could not be explained at all was the realization of magic. It did not exist in that world, so it must have been stolen from another world. And somehow this stolen flow of magic was being built up for some unknown purpose that required a vast reservoir to accomplish. Ainz needed to ponder this, that someone in his world had known of the existence of magic, had found a vast amount on another world, and most of all had come up with a way to bring it there and store it. And, he guessed, store it within the servers, integrated with some of the data of YGGDRASIL. This would explain how his guardians had come alive to some extent, even as virtual things, before they became real._

 _Be that as it may, the conspirators decided to co-opt this materialization capability for their own purposes, extraordinarily violent ones. And because they figured that any of them might be murdered at any time, it was to be activated by these final instructions programmed into Demiurge, after the final approval of Momonga, himself upset over the murder of Bellriver. But he also knew that other, undisclosed to him, means existed to activate it as well._

 _Lord Touch Me was too honest a policeman to bring into the terroristic plot, and Momonga was "an honest man" according to the others. So he was brought in to be a safety, in case the plot executed incorrectly, so he could order it terminated. Otherwise, the others decided to trust to his judgment, even though he had been kept in the dark for his own protection._

 _But what was the plot?, asked Ainz. Demiurge explained that Lord Tabula Smaragdina had created the three sisters, Nigredo, Albedo, and Rubedo, in a model of the alchemical process that would lead to the creation of the Philosopher's Stone. But the secret was that if the three came together under the proper conditions, they would unite to form a being of unique power in YGGDRASIL. Attracted to the stone meeting place by Demiurge, who was tasked to bring the World Item that Summons Devils as their primary weapon, at the moment of their joining, they and the World Item would disappear from YGGDRASIL, and be materialized, in all their terrifying glory and power, in the "Real World", said Demiurge, still personally unclear of what "real world" meant._

 _And this unparalleled weapon, fully powered by this stolen magic, would systematically destroy all that the assembled lords-conspirators considered as evil in the world. A godlike being of selective Armageddon among mortal humans._

 _Demiurge would come along as well, as he contained the target list of that which would be destroyed by the sisters, or their endless supply of demons from the World Item._

 _But what happened? The plot was never executed, the reasons for which were unknown. And one by one, the conspirators eventually left the game with little fanfare, leaving their catastrophe still armed and ready to go. Momonga was their safety, but he was never made aware of the scheme. Had circumstances changed, or had the authorities or mega corporations become aware of the plan? Was one or more of the other players also a spy?_

 _It confronted Lord Ainz with the problem that while Demiurge knew the exact sequence of actions he had to take to interrupt, to suspend, if not end this process; there were other such systems of which he knew nothing other than their existence, but they most likely were still active, and possibly existed in the other NPCs. But as long as they lived, Albedo, Nigredo, and Rubedo, individually or collectively must never, ever return to Helheim. And likely it was for the best that the distrust Nigredo felt for Rubedo should be encouraged, at least insofar as it kept the three sisters from being together._

 _Demiurge urged Lord Ainz to concoct some story plausible enough so that the other guardians would at least give it the benefit of the doubt, and not remain distraught or curious._

 _For his part, Ainz suggested that the crown of the Tuveg Priest Lord might be the key to this, that while the individual pieces contained only a small amount of magic, when arranged again into the shape of a crown, they acted as a trigger for an energetic burst contained in the building that first scrambled his senses, then overloaded his mind. As such, that building and the rest of the planet should be placed off limits, for other such traps might exist as well._

 _Demiurge complemented Ainz on his brilliance._

 _But then, almost as an afterthought, Demiurge asked that since Helheim exists, what of the other eight worlds of YGGDRASIL? Might they also exist, as opportunities, or perhaps threats?_

 _Much later, after Lord Ainz had at least interrupted the Apocalypse plan, if not canceled it, and the various guardian egos had more or less been mollified, Demiurge acknowledged to himself his duplicity, having told Lord Ainz one story, mostly true, having lied and told the other guardians, in front of Ainz, a different story, and last but not least, what had actually happened in that building on Helheim, for which he felt some degree of shame for his helplessness._

 _For Ainz' part, he began to form the idea that perhaps the stolen magic had been something like a rubber band. After it had been stretched all the way to the World of 2138, when the YGGDRASIL servers shut down, it released the tension on the magic, which snapped all of virtual YGGDRASIL that contained magic, and him, back to the world of stolen magic, or some other world. Perhaps to the other, possibly real, worlds as well, where it became real. Yet there were so many unanswered questions. Was Hellheim only in the game, or was it real before the game, and was Nazarick created there first, before being moved to the New World?_


	9. Chapter 9

_The early reports, from the periphery of their explored space, attracted a great deal of attention. A truly enormous spaceship had moved just outside of their furthest ring of automaton managed outposts, but then halted and began broadcasting in a large number of languages, containing a similar message, expressing a request to enter the territory, and if possible to establish diplomatic relations._

 _Recognizing several of these languages, and based on the phrasing used, a diplomatic response was drafted requesting appropriate diplomatic protocols. Well received, this "opened the floodgates" of what could be called the stodgiest possible diplomacy. Whoever they were, haste did not seem to fit in their vocabulary._

 _While their spaceship could obviously move at great speed, it proceeded at a relative snails' pace, halting at intervals. And it continued to broadcast all sorts of information, while fielding requests for more. It was soon explained that they served as a diplomatic corps of sorts for several sectors of space, many empires, kingdoms, and other forms of government, and were called the Obarodono. The size and power of the New World empire had been noted by others, so they had been asked to extend the offer of peaceful relations._

 _Their attitude was that information promoted peace, so they were more than happy to provide it. This included many maps of various territories in space, most of which were considerably far away, leaving great opportunity for potential expansion and colonization for the New World. Just the cultural guide of who was relatively nearby took a long time to digest, but knowing one's neighbors is important. Lots of realms, lots of independent worlds, some advanced, some more primitive._

 _For practical purposes, mostly administration, they asserted that there are limits to what can be comfortably managed. Raw materials, other than unique species, were only rarely worth any substantial trade. Of most interest were exotic culture novelties and technologies, but even they quickly lost their attraction. But Ainz, being a collector of information and artifacts wanted to know more, mostly about the space in which his empire operated._

 _So the diplomacy and information exchange plodded on. Meanwhile the Obarodono went to great lengths to assure the New World of their peaceful intentions, explaining their plans before they carried them out, and more than willing to step back if they offended. Eventually they halted their great ship, and departed a smaller vessel from within. Still large, it in turn gave up a smaller ship, and finally a ship solely for the diplomatic mission, still a great distance away from the New World._

 _Playing it carefully, Ainz ordered a landing facility built on the island of Underside, far away from any great habitations, and made it a scenic oasis in its vast desert, along with accommodations appropriate for such gatherings. Not knowing the appearance of the Obarodono, or their familiarity with undead, or any surreptitious purpose, Ainz decided to greet them with Pandora's Actor, appearing as an older human king, with Demiurge as his chief minister and Albedo as the ambassador. Ainz and many others, including the Second Organization, watched from afar and relayed instructions. The entourage was extensive, including many formidable races, and the reserves, in case of conflict, were very deadly ones._

 _By prior arrangement, their ship would land and rest for some hours before the Obarodono would disembark, to avoid any waiting by the host, and the New World inhabitants were encouraged to scan and inspect the ship as was their want, before and after. Special concern was given to the avoidance of pathogens or other such nuisances. Finally the appointed hour had arrived, and a gangway came forth from the lower part of the ship to a platform below._

 _The tension was palpable as the first of the Obarodono appeared at the top. Tall creatures, roughly humanoid in appearance, but with classical aspects of demons or devils, to include horns, long leathery wings and tails. "Strikingly handsome," Demiurge described them to Ainz. Their clothing was courtly and polite, but not overly decorous. After exchanging pleasantries, the group retired to a large and luxurious meeting area, equipped with lounge and dining area._

 _As tactfully as they could they said they understood the reticence to expose the New World leader to risk by appearing in person, instead sending a Doppelgänger, and hoped that in future an opportunity might present itself to have an actual meeting with him. It was duly noted that they could easily see through the proxy._

 _They also complemented Demiurge, looking dapper in his fine suit, as a handsome young arch-devil, with some of the younger females checking him out, but for the most part, they reserved the bulk of their attention to Albedo. They recognized her as a succubus, but so much more, truly what to them was a unique being, a hybrid of the highest angel and a dream monster, yet taking the form of a succubus. On meeting some of her children, diverse but all formidable, they were amazed by their power, character and grace. The enigmatic princesses of Ainz and Albedo chose not to attend._

 _Eventually the subject of undead was approached, and they showed neither surprise nor disdain of them, asserting that, to varying degrees, they were somewhat common elsewhere. Then a female Obarodono, in particular, took an interest in Albedo, and after a while, the two retired to a lounge for refreshments, both with the disarming intensity of diplomats or spies. After a rather sharp telepathic discussion between Ainz and Demiurge, the latter directed that Pandora's Actor should revert to his natural form. This was done mostly to free up the mind of Demiurge, who Pandora's Actor had used to maintain the sharp image of a human king, a now fruitless gesture. Demiurge did note, however, the reaction of the ever so slightly startled Obarodono, and wondered if it was more his uniform that was unexpected than his physical form._

 _The males then walked to a dining area. Sous-chef and his bar staff worked diligently to provide an assortment of New World beverages, while fortunately as part of former negotiations, they had learned of the Obarodono's preferences for food. Demiurge observed that while he was immune to poisons, so consumed several different beverage, remarking on their quality, while eating little, his guests seemed to have the useful skill of cast iron stomachs, practical for diplomats. They enjoyed everything, one of them remarking that space food was not as delightful as was fresh. Though they soon got down to business._

 _"_ _I noticed in your region of space we have identified several unstable stars, which could eventually be problematic if one of them had a catastrophe. We do have a technology that can stabilize them, that we would be more than happy to give you. Feel free to reverse engineer it, as it is an important tool for protecting civilizations, an untold number of which have been annihilated in past because of such events."_

 _For their part, Albedo and the female Obarodono, first discussed offspring, with Albedo being complemented on the number and impressive nature of her children present, featuring half-elven Arondigh and Asclepia, with none too subtle inquiries about Albedo's mate or mates, which she delicately parried. The female Obarodono confessed to being unmarried and childless, but hopeful. For her part, Albedo still had a strong interest in finding out if the Obarodono knew of the worlds of YGGDRASIL. She named them off for her: Niflheim, Muspelheim, Asgard, Midgard, Jotenheim, Vanaheim, Svatalheim, and Helheim. Especially Helheim. The female Obarodono sent an aide to research if they knew of such places._

 _Once it was clear that there was no imminent danger, for his part, Ainz had spent his time wondering what his appearance before the strangers should be. Demiurge had promised to make discreet inquiries to figure out what their expectations would be of that and of all manner of things, with extra caution if those questions concerned technology or military might. At his suggestion, there should be minimal or no evidence of automatons, and Ainz agreed._

 _Otherwise, their sources of intelligence provided no unexpected insights. The Second Organization found them to be alien enough to be a little unclear, but generally diplomatic, with less of the normal inhibitions, and more than average interest in what passed for the Obarodono religion or faith, based more in evolution than revolution. They later noted that some of the Obarodono seemed to be fantasizing a little about what it might be like to have offspring with such interesting beings._

 _Even Ainz of the future was not very helpful, with no red flags. He did recommend that the Micasa Foundation be kept informed, as they had proven useful over time, but he didn't see anything worth interference on his side, wanting to protect the timeline._

 _The Obarodono let slip that what had attracted their interest in the first place was the increasing use of gate technology in the sector, but when the "great plug of rock" was blasted into space, then accelerated away from the New World while slowly disintegrating, this got their attention. Demiurge did not mention the use of a Planetary Item to subdue the eruption of_ _Hephaestus, nor the use of another to safely eliminate the threat, but still acknowledged that this was not a natural event._

 _Then the Obarodono volunteered that after some time if they were willing to swap that volcano control technology, they would be very happy to give a multitude of other technologies in exchange, because disarming volcanoes was something they had never been able to perfect. They seemingly had no idea of the incredible arsenal of Planetary Items, and their knowledge of magic was closer to New World than YGGDRASIL standards._

 _After a few days of food and drink and diplomacy, the assistant to the female Obarodono reported back. He even managed to indirectly praise himself for his extensive library and language research about the YGGDRASIL worlds question. This was made far more difficult because this region, including those worlds, were "frontiers", from their point of view, he said after searching for the most appropriate word, and most record keeping was done by civilizations far away._

 _He went on to explain that as well as the vast distances of space, that this was an ancient galaxy, where civilizations had come and gone like seconds of time over the course of an hour, politely converting to New World time for his audience. Records were not always kept, nor kept orderly, nor preserved propely. So the more studious scholars of several of their associated governments had created a means by which empires, kingdoms and other organizations could be catalogued, mostly for their own use, but also for visitors and historians, to bring at least some order to the field._

 _At this point in the discussion by the one aide, off to the side, Albedo's son, Arondigh, discreetly whispered to another aide of the female Obarodono, to ask that she quickly call for a short break, as they had information of great importance to give to her. Though unsaid, this had been an instruction given to them by Lord Ainz, their father, and this was a primary reason for their attendance. The aide then discreetly spoke to the female Obarodono, she nodded her head in agreement and, apologizing to all, called for a recess before her research aide's exposition._

 _Albedo, who had been paying rapt attention, seemed mildly disappointed, but agreed to the break._

 _Both Arondigh and Asclepia were able to meet the female Obarodono off to the side, to officially request that while the other worlds of YGGDRASIL were of interest, that if they had discovered the world of Helheim, that it be omitted from discussion, as it could have very dramatic and extremely negative consequences to "ambassador" Albedo, personally, and as such, her husband the emperor had ordered that she be denied such knowledge. They already knew of that world and its risks. Finally, being given telepathic information at the moment, their appreciation for this omission would be made with a personal audience by the emperor in the near future._

 _After rapidly calculating the situation, the female Obarodono agreed, met with her researcher aide, and then conferred with the male Obarodono meeting in the adjacent room._

 _Several of the YGGDRASIL worlds were indeed known. Asgard still had many ruins though it had been destroyed in some great war. Muspelheim remained overwhelmed by its lava seas. Jotenheim was very picturesque, with scant evidence of the giants that had dwelled there. Alfheim was likewise a verdant garden, with a breed of elves different from those in the New World entourage, yet were remembered as friendly and sophisticated. Svartalfheim was considerably harder to find, as the dwarves there preferred underground habitations. Niflheim was a fog and mist covered world of tall mountains and often frozen seas. Vanaheim was undiscovered, possibly cloaked from observation, as was likely, he said with a straight face, Helheim._

 _Then he gave something of an odd warning for the world of Midgard, which was known by many names, most of them disparaging, as a "world of death or dead souls". Somehow the balance between life and death had been greatly upset, with death so dominating that all life was extinguished, as such it had been blacklisted for avoidance by space travellers passing through the region, who had taken the warning to heart, perhaps embracing it as a superstition, enough so that its entire star system was given a wide berth. Such warnings were very uncommon._

 _While Albedo wished to pursue this further, she was advised by an assistant that Lord Ainz intended to soon make an appearance. And while she wished to protest on general principles, Ainz personally interceded with her telepathically, advising her that he would be cautious as always (which did not reassure her at all), but that he expected her to stay by his side, so that she could provide a barrier the instant any aggressive intent was seen (which did much to ease her mind), as well as introduce her to them as his Empress (which boosted her spirits considerably.)_

 _He had finally chosen to arrive in his Overlord Lich form, yet with a moderate amount of Imperial decorum and fanfare (and eat your heart out, Touch Me, with some gimmicks you would have adored), through a magical gate in the diplomatic arena that was designed to look like a mechanical gate. And he was gratified to see the Obarodono aliens immediately join in bowing respectfully._

 _"_ _All Hail Lord Ainz Ooal Gown, Emporer-Overlord of this and many other worlds, other Realms, Possessions and Territories, Father of Kings and Queens, Warriors, Scholars and Healers, Keeper of Peace and Prosperity, and Uniter of Races." (He had requested they omit several other parts of his usual title involving magic, life and death, and several other things.)_

 _And beckoning her over, Ainz himself greeted Albedo as his Empress, and he added on the spur of the moment, his gifted ambassador-at-large. Albedo noted with a little satisfaction the surprise on the face of the female Obarodono, when she realized she had been comfortably chatting with an Empress with a far lower level of ritual decorum than was expected of a diplomat. But Albedo fully intended to pursue that familiarity with her interest with her in locating Helheim, yet the female Obarodono was now determined that she not know this._

 _After briefly apologizing for the difficulty in locating Helheim in their records, she tried to change the subject by asking that since part of Albedo was from the land of dreams, had she ever seen fit to visit it?_

 _Albedo looked puzzled, so Obarodono said that prior to the development of gate technology, many civilizations had used the land of dreams as a ready means of communication over vast distances. While many cultures had attempted to map it, it had proven a daunting problem, because of its vastness. So most visitors remained in the more traveled parts. The female Obarodono said she had far less experience there than most, only the minimum required for her diplomatic rating._

 _Albedo explained that because she did not sleep, she did not dream, so was asked then why not go there in a waking dream? Seeing Albedo's continued puzzlement, the female Obarodono realized Albedo's complete unfamiliarity with the land of dreams, so then asked one of her aides over._

 _The aide was described to Albedo as a frequent dreamer, and the female Obarodono briefly said how through the use of a common magical item, a ring, and minimal practice, a dreaming body would be created that could visit the land of dreams in full consciousness, while the waking body continued on in full consciousness in the real world. At its return, the two parts would rejoin, and the person would have the clear memory of having done two different things at the same time. He agreed to demonstrate, and without even shutting his eyes, stared off into space, but after just a few moments, he came to. He mentioned that from his point of view he had been in the land of dreams for several days just then, time behaving much differently there._

 _"_ _My apologies, but after getting my bearings, I made a few discreet inquiries about the Empress and Emperor, and was, how shall I put it, mobbed. Not just by dreamers who happened to be there, but by dream creatures who inhabit the land of dreams. And I met several beings from the other side of the land of dreams." This impressed the female Obarodono, who remarked that other side beings were usually very rare, as they came from a place beyond dreams, and could use the land of dreams to travel, but that this was a dangerous maneuver on their part, not something they would do casually._

 _"_ _In any event, judging from the sheer volume of inquiries, the Obarodono diplomatic annex there agreed to create a temporary interest section for you, if you don't mind, until such time as you establish your own embassy, if you choose to do so. We will be glad to assist if you like, or can discontinue our efforts, if you would prefer we not."_

 _"_ _So, it seems, you are known and popular there," said the female Obarodono, before adding, as an afterthought, "perhaps too popular". She explained, that while wonderful for recreational purposes, the land of dreams lacked any formality, and as such it could be uncomfortable for polite people. It would be best to train some dreamers to relay queries to you like couriers, if they were of interest._

 _Saying they had brought a lot of such dream rings, as they often gave to children of those they visited as gifts, they would be more than happy to provide as many as Albedo liked._

 _With this, concluding ceremonies and mutual exchange of some gifts, the aliens departed, with the agreement to send a larger delegation next time, in a few hundred years, with a much greater mutual exchange. Until then, if they wished to communicate about much anything, to send someone by their annex, and they could arrange for another physical visit._

 _A few weeks later, under the cover of night, Albedo left Nazarick to pay a visit to an undistinguished building far away. With little notice, a junior assistant navigator on board the "Dark Star" had received notice of a serious injury in his family, so he had been transferred to a temporary ground assignment. En route to his new duty station he had disappeared. He was now a captive in that building, and was struggling to answer the questions put to him._

 _"_ _Who ordered the logs of the Dark Star to be edited? Where is Helheim? What orders have you been given about Helheim?" He tried very hard to answer these questions, under great duress, though he had been off duty at the time. Eventually he was able to piece together a rough location for Helheim from the star charts. It was the last thing he ever did._


	10. Chapter 10

_Among his seemingly ever expanding retinue of court functionaries, counselors, courtiers, and servants, Ainz had a number of slimes, his favorite being Solution Epsilon. After being lobbied by them for centuries, while stubbornly refusing them, she finally agreed at an appropriate moment to approach him, for the good of Nazarick, to point out his vast but very underused asset. She chose an indirect approach._

 _"_ _My Lord, there is a council of slimes, who periodically meet to discuss issues related to the Empire and how to best address them to your advantage. However, since time immemorial they have been rudderless and confused, lacking in the guidance which they seek. Several of their scholars and delegates would like to extend the respectful greetings of the assembly, and were hoping, that if you were so inclined, you might care to visit, so that they might properly give their respects."_

 _Asked to elaborate by Ainz, she explained that the council was quite diverse, and while all were loyal to Ainz, for many he was almost an abstract, difficult to understand, with some still holding an almost religious devotion to the Supreme Beings Lady Bukubukuchagama and Lord Herohero, which she found inappropriate, but understandable. Seating in the council had to be arranged by mutual natural animosity, such as not putting the hot slimes next to the cold slimes, nor acidic next to alkaline, negative next to positive, predator next to prey, or personal animosity, etc. He had no clue how very understated she had been in this._

 _But agreeing to set a date for it, she suggested that Nazarick was likely not the best place for the meeting, though she did not explain why, other than for his convenience, and the castle purchased and rebuilt just for that purpose by the slimes would be a more comfortable venue, though, she added it "did not have the grandeur of Nazarick, of course"._

 _A little deceptive in this, the slime castle had far more grandeur, in that legions of slimes had spent their lives and fortunes to make it so. Its décor was legendary to the few craftsman specialists who had seen it, even more so because slimes did not see with eyes, but as a group by motion detection. But some kinds of slime could distinguish certain bands of colors, others contrasts, some could perceive shine and shadow, etc. So every part of their castle was a group project approved by all. The end result was a unique feast for the eyes created by those who had none._

 _Before his arrival, Ainz' expectations had been rather low. For her part, Solution Epsilon spent a lot of time trying to lower the slimes collective expectations as well. Having met many of his children, of many races, though he had made no slime offspring, they were perplexed by his uniqueness, certainly not like any other undead. She had to lecture them at length, and at many levels of intelligence, so they knew how to conduct themselves appropriately._

 _She was well aware of how contentious and divisive slimes could be, and many meetings had devolved into shouting matches, contests of stubbornness and momentum, walkouts and filibusters. And the debates. Endless debates. They had at times tried to make her their president by acclamation, and perhaps this, more than anything, had persuaded her to finally beg Lord Ainz' intercession._

 _Her best idea was to ask them to compile a list of those things the slimes had the ability to do for Lord Ainz in the future. He truly had no idea what they had to offer._

 _His arrival, with just modest pomp, could not have been more embarrassing to him than if had he come in rags and muddy boots. Fortunately overwhelmed and awestruck were not as such emotions, so were not dampened, but his mind struggled to embrace such magnificence. A vast, arched ceiling, resplendent in silver and gold, with cut diamond chandeliers, supported by immense, hand carved columns, walls encrusted with cut precious and semiprecious gemstones, a recurring theme of a trinity of Ainz, Bukubukuchagama, and Herohero in amazing artworks, and many other portraits of noteworthy slimes, including Solution Epsilon and Sapphire slime Miyoshi, his bath attendant. A bit dazed, he glanced down at the floor. Resting atop what could be described as a hypnotically ornate and detailed surface, was the highest quality magic imbued woven carpet. "My Lord," said Solution, breaking him out of his fixation, "would you care for us to move from the vestibule to the meeting hall?"_

 _This is just the vestibule?, Ainz though, and though he was preparing to walk, as soon as he agreed, the carpet beneath them began to move. Impressively balanced and stable, Ainz was unaware that they were able to make such carpets. Feeling like he was standing still, he assumed that they had dampened inertia in some way, so even moving at high speed, it could instantly stop yet not throw its passengers off. A very expensive, space faring bit of science and magic, in a carpet._

 _The meeting area was vast, a gigantic egg-shaped arena, so when arriving on the speakers platform in the middle, he was surrounded by slime delegates in all directions and in every color of the rainbow. At his level were many climate controlled boxes for those from extreme environments. Then all at once, from everywhere lights began flashing. "Because of various problems with sound, delegates have been asked to flash their voting lights, in lieu of cheering and applause. We welcome you, one and all, Emperor Ainz!" said the current president._

 _"_ _Our diversity is far greater than that of the human races, and it continues to increase. While many in our race are simple and primitive, we go to lengths to evolve, increase their intelligence, and then educate them. Those that are intelligent and educated are restricted by many races from the employment they can pursue, so we innovate new and profitable means of self and group employment."_

 _By far the most profitable of these industries was through their advanced control of microorganisms, to the point where they had created a new class of casters called "bacteriomancers". They had created bacteria capable of extracting precious metals from ore, enriching farmland to create great yields of food, or, one of his major points, that slimes were capable of rapidly terraforming entire planets to suit the needs of the Emperor. With just rocks and water, they could make soil, fertilize it, establish colonies of bacteria within it to keep it fertile, and travel just under the surface, planting seeds carried in their bodies of a hundred thousand species of plant so that the world becomes green overnight._

 _"_ _And we can destroy any monsters or hazards who dwell in those worlds, as you request and require of us to do."_

 _At this point, Solution Epsilon interjected that as a race, slimes were more than willing to perform both planetary repair and maintenance throughout the Empire, but that they would be far more efficient in doing so were the Emperor to grant them an unimportant world they could call their homeworld._

 _Ainz pondered this briefly then considered this was not an unreasonable request, and said that he would take it under advisement. And all around him the lights flashed._

 _But what happened next was wholly unplanned by Ainz. Whereas before, at the request of Albedo that he mate with some other female for political or diplomatic reasons, necessitating a painful and difficult racial change on his part, for the first time, driven perhaps by his amazement of their palace, or their profound adoration, Ainz spontaneously changed into what could be called an Imperial Slime._

 _Ainz would be held as blameless for what happened next. Momentarily befuddled by his change of perception, it took Ainz a while to summon a viewing magic so he could interpret what was happening around him. The slime president was bowing? Prostrate? Solution Epsilon had become a vibrating puddle on the platform, losing her composure so much that she could not maintain her form. Ainz activated his "hearing" only to have to shut it down immediately because its volume was painfully loud. Only then did he shift his attention to his audience, who were enthusiastically out of control._

 _Are we under attack?, he thought, before realizing the assembled slimes were cheering, and so loudly that it was shaking the building to its foundation. In their excitement they had lost all discipline and order. In one moment, the cults of the worship of Lady Bukubukuchagama and Lord Herohero were forgotten, as the assembled had undeniably witnessed the being and becoming of their Slime God._

 _Back in Nazarick just an hour later, Empress Albedo was perplexed by the sudden receipt of hundreds of requests by slime females across the social spectrum, from nobility, wealthy, warrior, scholarly and capable, to commoner, that through her grace they might be allowed to mate with the Emperor-Overlord. While more primitive slimes varied between asexual and sexual reproduction, more advanced slimes exclusively used sexual reproduction, as it created higher quality offspring. All the assembled slimes could tell at a glance that Ainz status was far beyond any other possible mate._

 _Only when given leave by Ainz, replaced by a capable team of slime warriors and diplomats, did Solution Epsilon return to Nazarick to report to Albedo. Afterwards she apologized to for losing her composure in the presence of Ainz as Slime God, unable to control herself. Albedo was uncharacteristically understanding and sympathetic. Offering Ainz to mate with her first, Solution said yes immediately. She was very glad that she did not again turn into a vibrating puddle, at least until after she had retired to her quarters._

 _For his part, Ainz gave the slimes a much better world than they had hoped for, as well as his offspring slimes to be their capable leaders. The extensive repairs and redecorating of their castle was an act of great joy on their part, because as their popular saying went, "What do you expect when a god is born in your house?"_

 _Some years later a large, elaborate communications scroll was received by an administrative office outside of Nazarick. It was of a type used exclusively by royalty in the ancient past, and had several magically imbued seals on it of an unknown type. Were it an artifact, it would have been priceless. Yet it was addressed to Emperor-Overlord Ainz Ooal Gown, as having been sent by the Brightness Dragon Lord. On being told of it, Ainz put all Nazarick on high alert, and ordered that all internal communications be double checked and preferably made face to face._

 _"_ _His Imperial and Royal Majesty, Emperor-Overlord Ainz Ooal Gown, Magnanimous Lord of the New World and Other Worlds, its Conquests, Dominions, Territories, Possessions and Colonies; Master Chronos, Master of Life and Death, Caster Supreme; Ancestor of Royal Lineages and Great Father of Many Powerful Dragons._

 _Greetings from your humble subject, known in this world as Brightness Dragon Lord._

 _First, let me extend my deepest apologies for the affront visited on you so very long ago, and also to express my appreciation for your decision to not extract revenge for this impolite intrusion. This being said, I compliment you on having used this ability to create your extraordinary legion of powerful and regal progeny that now grace the realm._

 _The reason for this letter is to alert you to a visitation by a being vastly more powerful than anything I have ever encountered before. To my knowledge, in the entirety of this world, He has only visited it three times. His last visit was caused by the efforts of the Demon God and the Evil Deities to destroy this world._

 _Though the Thirteen Heroes fought against and defeated the Evil Deities, it was this being who destroyed them utterly. Even the Hero called the Platinum Dragon Lord was unaware of this action or its agent. But at the end, the Thirteen Heroes were made aware of His presence and foolishly challenged Him. His intent had been to reward them, but because of this affront, they were denied and humbled. While some legends say they defeated Him, or He defeated them, the truth is that there could not be a battle because of His overwhelming might, and they were humiliated and chose to never speak of it again._

 _This great being is called the Dragon God, and He spoke to me of His intent to visit you, with the request that I give you notice of this visit. This visit will be many years from now, and is not intended to be malevolent, but benevolent and informative. And as is His want, He intends to bestow on you gifts that only He can provide. You may choose to use them or not._

 _As I learn more, I will try to keep you informed. When the time approaches, I will visit in a human form, openly and only with your permission, acting as His herald, as He will speak only to me or to you directly."_

 _Ainz pondered this letter at length. At the time of the first intervention by the Brightness Dragon Lord, he was too busy to think of it as an attack, or embarrassed by the seeming ease by which the defenses of Nazarick had been evaded and breached by a ridiculous amount of wild magic. These feelings came later. Yet he had to agree that because of this his empire had grown faster, become far more powerful, and given him the personal satisfaction of having a wife and a multitude of children._

 _From there his mind wandered to the treasures bestowed by the Brightness Dragon Lord as gifts or bribes for the trespass. As items or as weapons they were interesting, but their rarity and artistry made them priceless as artifacts. Scholars pondered their origins and owners, and craftsmen copied their designs for reproductions. Many were gifted to museums and became their crown jewels._

 _But there were other items of tremendous power that were never to leave the treasury, except under Ainz' personal orders. This included the engagement ring he had given to Albedo, which magnified her power and intellect. She had been his bride and champion, now she was truly an "Iron Empress", his name for her assumed new class, comparable to his Emperor-Overlord class. Other things he had gifted to his other guardians. Of these, an idol of_ _Mnemosyne, the mother of the Muses, given to Shalltear Bloodfallen, was the most impressive, as even with the lightest of touches, her mind, and those of her students, were filled with artistic inspiration. When the touch ended, they felt compelled to write it down or compose it or perform it before others. For those with artistic inclinations it was an endless fountain of creativity._

 _But a mystery remained, three rings, each with their own case, labeled that they should be given to the triplets when they reached their majority._

 _The first children of Albedo and Ainz were identical triplet girls, who he called his princesses, and the nickname stuck. Even as babies they were imbued with unparalleled power, easily in Rubedo's class, though their Aunt Rubedo and their other nursemaids and nannies were pushed to their limits to subdue their frequent childish mischief before it leveled mountains. Unlike other children they were very slow growing. Raising them was a great effort, but a labor of love for both Ainz and Albedo. For centuries Ainz had pondered the three rings given them by the Brightness Dragon Lord as gifts for the girls, who had foreseen them even before their conception. And because none in Nazarick could detect the slightest threat from the rings, it was decided that they should be given them when they were of age, knowing its origins, with their choice to accept them or not._

 _This was a misjudgment. The three girls each took their ring and soon permanently evolved into living goddesses, and lost their names as superfluous. That is, none who had been told their names could remember them, so thereafter they were only known, even by Ainz and Albedo, as "the princesses." They could speak in the vernacular, and could also converse with Victim in Enochian, the language of the angels, but among themselves spoke a language that Victim could recognize, but not understand nor speak himself, which he called "Godspeak". Their activities became unfathomable, and while they honored their parents, they felt no obligation to obey them, or anyone else, for they had other, if incomprehensible, things to do. Whatever their intent, their determination to carry it out was impeccable._

 _Albedo speculated that the rings themselves were indeed harmless, but it was the act of the three donning them at once that turned them into their new forms. Anything that could have united them by carrying out the same action at the same time would have produced the same result. Yet she and Ainz agreed, and were careful to tell the princesses that they supported them in whatever path their future held, though it was beyond their ken, and wished to keep and hold dear their bonds of affection._

 _And though they did not speak, the three goddess princesses all smiled gentle smiles._

 _Fortunately for all, Ainz and Albedo's many other children, while still powerful and unique, were far more personable and normal, as godkin went, growing from infant to adult much faster than the princesses. They were at the apex of the hierarchy of the Children of Ainz, and they were beloved by all the remaining guardians, especially when they were young, filling them with tales of the Supreme Beings like doting older relatives._

 _In his moments of evening intimacy with Albedo, this talk of the Supreme Beings made Ainz wax nostalgic about his friends. At first it gave her feelings of cold anger and her impulse to destroy any Supreme Being other than Ainz she encountered. But finally one night he said something that began over a long time, to erode her fortress of hate._

 _"_ _If Tabula could have possibly stayed here, he would have had intense pride in you, his daughter. How you have grown from a girl to an Empress, the mother of our Empire. While Supreme Beings were indeed powerful, even we were subject to forces beyond our control. How their hearts must have ached to have to leave their children behind."_


	11. Chapter 11

_Instead of anger, Ainz had taken this gift from the Brightness Dragon Lord as a debt of sorts, after discerning the Dragon Lord's responsibility for it. So much so that when the mountain stronghold of the Dragon Lord was eventually discovered, he prohibited adventurer-explorers, the curious, and anyone else from trespassing in that area. A rule strictly enforced by the demihumans who lived there._

 _But Ainz also figured this debt was best repaid by encouraging the spawning of many more dragons, in their hundreds, many of whom he could claim as his offspring, and both discovering the source of the Dragon Lords power and to imbue younger dragons with so much of that power that they would become new Dragon Lords, while staying on friendly terms with everyone else. Quite an ambitious exercise, if he could figure out how to do it. He hoped that someday they could be far more powerful than even in the Age of the Dragon Lords, as he had much personal fondness for them and their potential contributions to his world._

 _Something said in their discussions with the Obarodono, about the world of death that was Midgard, got Demiurge pondering how this hazard to navigation might be turned to the advantage of Emperor-Overlord Ainz. First he speculated about the origins of how death and life could become so imbalanced. His conclusion was that this could only happen in a place with no appreciable amount of magic. After death, the awareness continued, but the vast amount of energy contained in the soul with it was dissipated, with excess converted to magic. Having this soul energy converted to magic kept an order to things, so the balance between death and life was maintained._

 _Even so, some other force must have contained all this energy in that world. While he could only speculate, he suspected that the atmosphere held some form of synthetic contaminant that captured and held this energy, preventing it from bleeding into space._

 _But be that as it may, if there was some way to harvest this energy, convert it to wild energy, and transfer it to the Dragons of the New World, their power and might would dramatically increase. But there were so many unanswered questions, answers to some of which might only be found on Midgard itself._

 _Under the guise of exploring the other worlds of YGGDRASIL, other than the world of Helheim, forbidden to Rubedo, Albedo and Nigredo, the ruins of Asgard, and the enigmatic Vanaheim, which was magically cloaked, but because of its unknown nature would require a substantial invasion force, Ainz agreed with the scheme of Demiurge, to covertly send Rubedo to Midgard, the one being who might be able to do so, to conduct a detailed survey from orbit, of its atmosphere at varying altitudes, and finally of anything of moment she might discover on or below its surface. Her support team on her main vessel would be entirely of hardened automatons._

 _For her part she would wear an armored environment suit, imbued with an impressive number of magical protective spells, and she was ordered that with any aggressive action or threat against her she was to evacuate immediately, and was authorized to use any firepower she needed to afford her escape._

 _Her first great observation was that no undead could travel to the place and return, but instead would become trapped there. The number of dead soul energy there was so great that it formed a planetary potential that was irresistible for any soul not contained in a living body. Except for the very strong, even weaker living things would be quickly drained of their lives and souls, so the world was lifeless, without animal or plant. It was a damned place._

 _Yet she was puzzled because it contained far more soul energy than a planet could evolve in its usual time, as many as six or a dozen inhabited planets. Maybe more. She speculated that planetary disasters had wiped out all life, forcing it to start over multiple times, numerous small life forms having more total life than fewer advanced ones, but that was still too little to explain it. She speculated that all of that planet's magic had been used up in creating life, over and over again, ironically eventually causing the imbalance that wiped out all life._

 _There was clearly evidence of humanoid life there while life still existed. The ruins of vast cities, roads, and terrible wars was still much in evidence. Those who had lived there were both ruinous to their world and self destructive to a great degree. But no trace of where such humanoids had gone, if they had left this world behind. It would seem that life other than theirs they systematically destroyed before they vanished._

 _Rubedo's exploration was thorough, her destructive enemies mostly due to the acidic nature of the atmosphere and oxidation, since there were no living microorganisms. Most of the surface buildings had little of value remaining. However, beneath the surface there were many vaults and chambers that contained information in much better condition, which she dutifully recorded._

 _Her greatest discovery was of an underground city. An enigmatic place, it did not seem to be designed for long term habitation, but as a gathering place, a depot, for tens of thousands to group together. Its strangest feature was an immense multitiered auditorium filled with beds, on each of which was resting a peculiar shaped helmet, but not of a type of great value in combat. Otherwise it had offices and an armory. She noticed that each office had a similar document either on its wall or desks, which she copied as it might have some importance. Yet the city seemed to have never been used._

 _She finally found the heart of the city deep underground, behind several heavy, airtight vault doors, and protected by an atmosphere of inert gas. Many large metal boxes of indeterminate but dense content, and something entirely unsuspected within them, residual traces of magic. After coordinating with her ship, most of its hold was prepared and filled with the same type of inert gas, then by using a gate and dozens of strong automatons, she ordered the boxes taken there._

 _Beyond that, her opinion was clear that nothing of value remained on Midgard, that it was most certainly a hazard, with several navigational beacons around it to warn off the unwary, and unless what she had gathered required a future visit to that world, it would be best to just destroy it._

 _Her return to the New World was far more important than she realized, but her timing could not have been worse. Not only were the preparations of the 10,000_ th Anniversary of the Empire underway, but the Brightness Dragon Lord had sent a communique of his request to pay a visit before the celebration, several days ahead of the appearance of the Dragon God, so as to brief Ainz on the proper customs and courtesies for his meeting.

As his gift to Ainz, Demiurge and a team of his best engineers had gone, with the permission of the Obarodono, to recover their gigantic abandoned exploratory vessel, the Research Master Archive, and to make it the property of the New World, and had taken it over and placed it in permanent far orbit around the New World, on condition that once he had recovered its data, in the far future, that he provide a copy to them. His mission complete, it just added to the confusion.

 _With the Return of Rubedo, the already flustered Ainz told her, still far away from the New World, to set up what she had discovered in his bedchamber, about the only available unused large room left in Nazarick, then she would be summoned to give him a briefing whenever he could find an idle hour or so._

 _For the 10,000_ th anniversary, the royal suites of the 9th floor, reserved for VIPs, were crowded, with most attendees preferring the open spaces of the 6th jungle floor. Visiting elves felt obligated to tour the gigantic tree, with many brought to tears at seeing the home of their beloved first Queen and King, before sampling the delicious apple and mandrake wines, breads and fish produced in the Lizardman village of Green Hole, and communing with the numerous Dryads and Treants on that floor, as was the custom of elves. Over the millennium, even the level 67 Spear Needles monsters had become domesticated and friendly and enjoyed being petted and given treats by the elf visitors.

 _When the com message arrived to let Ainz know of the return of Rubedo, his carefully arranged plan commenced like clockwork. Everything about the travel of Rubedo was carried out with the utmost of secrecy, out of Ainz' excessive caution and the debacle at Helheim, so when he excused himself and turned over the overcrowded festivities of the_ 10th _floor throne room to Albedo, she accepted graciously without hint of her own intense curiosity of her sister's travels. Her teams of guardians, Pleiades, homonculus maids, and legion of elven and human servants were still stretched thin for all of the pomp, ceremony and innumerable guests. Even a local gate in the Nazarick kitchen was busy receiving shipments stacked with commercial item box scrolls, each of which contained vast amounts of catered food and drink, sent from discreet gated delivery near the main tomb._

 _Ainz' bedchamber was now equipped with tables, maps and charts, and all manner of scrolls for Rubedo to give her briefing. She had been rigorous in her thorough documentation of what she called the Planet of the Dead. It was far beyond any of their estimations. And though Demiurge was not present, his scientists and casters were pouring over the many great metal boxes she had returned, and concluded that they were much like a giant automaton brain._

 _Discussing it at length with Rubedo, Ainz could find no ready answers, so for the time being she continued with her briefing of what she had learned there. Almost as an afterthought, as they were about to leave to return to the celebration, she mentioned the name she had found on Midgard of what it had been called by its last occupants._

 _"_ _Earth"._

 _Had Ainz a heart, it would have skipped much more than just a beat._

 _Ainz was beyond speechless. Suddenly the great spectacle at Nazarick seemed to pale in comparison to this discovery. In truth, his memories of his home world had been mostly forgotten over the years, holding little value in the New World, and being unpleasant at best. Mostly there was no one and no thing there which he figured worth remembering, other than the game YGGDRASIL, and his peers, the other supreme beings, within. But their plans to depart the briefing were over, as he wanted far more details, his interest renewed._

 _Eventually the subject turned to the underground city and the great metal boxes. With this, Ainz began a flurry of communications with the message center at Nazarick. The rest of the briefing was punctuated with hastily written and overlapping notes by the scientists and casters involved in their dissection. The automaton brain system had many destroyed large capacitor like devices designed exclusively to capture and store a vast amount of magical energy. This, on a world without magic?_

 _The only possible explanation was that they had discovered how to steal magical energy from another world and transport it there._

 _But then, unexpectedly the system was shut down, and there was a massive discharge of magic, a reverse flow taking much of it back to its world, and perhaps elsewhere. Violently. What was more, the magic had become intertwined with the data in the system, so that it too was ripped from the automaton brain to unknown result. No, he said to himself, the proper name for those metal boxes is not an automaton brain, but the old word, computers._

 _Ainz felt a strong shudder, so asked them, "What would happen if a person was connected with this brain when this event happened? What would happen to them?" Several minutes passed in silence as these questions were debated, before they finally replied, "We cannot even speculate, my Lord."_

 _Ainz asked Rubedo to pause her briefing for several minutes as he tried desperately to think, but couldn't._

 _Remembering YGGDRASIL brought to mind that he had never solved the mystery of how he and the game and other players and custom NPCs had been brought here and made real. How virtual characters were given life and purpose, learning and even love. How magic that did not exist on Earth except on computer servers became real, along with so many other improbable or even impossible things, such as, he thought, his own existence as an animate skeleton sorcerer._

 _What if he, and the other players who had come to the New World, been sent across space and time for a reason? Sent by Earth, no, taken back by the New World itself, caught up in the tide of the return of its stolen wild magic._

 _"_ _Lord Ainz?", asked Rubedo. Having pieced together that Ainz was familiar in some way with the Planet of the Dead, she had just one remaining almost trivial question for him. It concerned the document found throughout the underground city, on walls and on desks. It seemed identical in many ways, yet only contained numbers, which made its purpose unclear. She displayed an image of one to Ainz. He said nothing for several seconds, then thanked her for her hard work and thoroughness, before politely dismissing her and inviting her to enjoy the festivities, but to be ready were he to have any other follow up questions for her. He did not answer her question._

 _After she left, Ainz willfully went through one of his most painful race changes. He turned into a human. The reason being that humans had an unusual gift for agonizing emotions, wrapped around monumental self pity and suffering, and true anguish. Then Ainz wailed, sobbed and cried bitter tears, from the very bottom of his soul. It did not diminish his pain in the slightest. Finally, out of self preservation he returned to his skeletal form, and for several minutes bathed in the light of emotional suppression, not resentful of it in the slightest, before regaining his equanimity, if not peace of mind._

 _The document that Rubedo had shown him had a large number displayed at its top, and this number was shared by all the other documents in the unused underground city in the Planet of the Dead, Earth. That number was 2138. "Oh, bloody hell. What am I supposed to do?", Ainz said out loud to the empty bedchamber._

 _"_ _The answer to your questions is just 'Why not just ask?'", said a voice emerging from a shadow in a corner of the room, greatly startling Ainz. By all appearances a nobleman of some great royal court from a much earlier age. Then quickly adding, "I do love an entrance, Ainz. Are introductions needed?" Unmistakably, even in a human form, this was the Brightness Dragon Lord._

 _Breaking the tension, the Dragon Lord volunteered that he had far more answers than Ainz had questions, but that these answers would then lead to far more questions, soon reaching the point where even he did not have the answers. "But to somewhat allay your concerns, I suppose, the answer to your first question, of 'can I read your mind', is no. But those...beings...who can read your mind have shared with me what you think. Its purpose is less intrusion, than to save time, which as of now is at a premium."_

 _"_ _Life flows into and becomes death; in turn, death flows into and becomes life," he said. The balance between yin and yang was maybe more accurate, how when death is at its greatest it begins to behave more like life and the same with an overabundance of life beginning to resemble death._

 _If there was just one Dragon Lord with whom he was on amiable terms, perhaps, thought Ainz, it was the Brightness Dragon Lord. Though they had never met in person, Ainz knew of the existence of his lair in a mountaintop near the center of the continent. As a courtesy, Ainz had directed his subordinates and anyone else to give it a wide berth, not wanting to disturb a creature so powerful it could, and had, remotely controlled what happened within Nazarick itself, even though its actions at least appeared without harmful intent, and been of great value to him, his family and his empire in the long run._

 _But how could he approach this Dragon Lord in a non-threatening manner, seeking information of great benefit to all, including future generations of dragons, he mused._

 _"_ _The answer to your questions is 'Why not just ask?'", said the Brightness Dragon Lord, half teasingly._

 _To start from the ending, we dragons do not consume soul energy, instead as it passes through us, we distill it into wild magic, like honey. But it cannot be just any soul energy, but soul energy that has first been filtered through the world. When it was plentiful, we enjoyed an age of dragons. But imagine our surprise when suddenly our reserves of wild magic were being stolen from us by some distant world?_

 _We tried to reverse the flow without success, then quite suddenly the force pulling on it stopped, and a great glob of it hit this world, while other globs of it hit other worlds. Yet we only got back the smallest fraction of what was ours, and it was quite unstable, converting data there into reality here. And not all at once, but in waves._

 _This is why when the Six Great Gods introduced Tier Magic here, it seemed to be more powerful and convenient, in our world depleted of most of its Wild Magic. Without refreshing the New World, that is, planet Momonga, with soul energy for it to filter, and for dragons to distill, the future will bode ill for this world. But refreshed, not only will dragonkind see you as their beloved all-father, but your world will be prosperous and powerful indefinitely. And there is so much more, but not for me to tell, but will be said by the Dragon God._

 _In the meantime, there is much to be done. We must first destroy Midgard, your Earth, to break its hold over all that soul energy, then rapidly resurrect it to a pristine place bristling with life to protect it while all that soul energy is drawn to this world. Once stable, Midgard will again be under the protection of the gigantic Midgard Serpent Ouroboros, as it once was._

 _To accomplish this, I would like to request one of your faster ships, and Lord Demiurge, equipped with some of the Planetary Items we developed. Ainz caught the "we" in there, saying "Eh?", to which the Brightness Dragon Lord replied, "Lord Demiurge knows me as Dr. Gondar Luster, one of his top scientists, who never personally invents things, but is always on a team that does, knowing everything there is to know about complex items. So he will not be surprised if I accompany him."_

 _"_ _Then, if you could ask Countess Solution, (Huh? Ainz said to himself) to bring a Class A planetary maintenance team, with a full complement of commercial size item seed boxes, and a half dozen bacteriomancers. They should already be on standby, ready to depart with the ship." Ready already, thought Ainz?_

 _"_ _The last group, already assembled, are Countess Entoma's (Huh? Again, Ainz said to himself) 100 best entomancers from among her children, and a hold full of the insects they will need. By your command, we will be ready to leave within the hour."_

 _"_ _What's with the 'countess' title?," Ainz asked, ignoring the big picture. "Well, they are your wives or mistresses, as well as the mothers of some of your children, so you should at least give them an appropriate title to show their status." Initially, Ainz thought it was a good idea, until he did the math and realized the title would be so common as to not be complementary. Maybe some titles to some of the more important females he pondered. Perhaps there is already far too much nobility for a single world._

 _"_ _In any event," said Ainz, "I hereby authorize and command the expedition."_

 _With that, the Brightness Dragon Lord presented Ainz with an "Apex Gate Ring". It had three jewels. When the ring was taken to another world, if the first jewel was touched, the ring would mark its dynamic location. The second jewel would list a menu of the worlds currently tracked and as needed, and the menu could also be edited in various ways, and when a world was selected, a second touch would give you a visual image of that place. A third touch would create a gate that would take you there instantly. And the third jewel, when touched, would gate its owner to their selected point of origin._

 _Enigmatically, he added that in future, as needed, he would provide as many of these rings as Ainz felt necessary._

 _A gate that can take you from planet to planet directly. Impressive. Then he noticed that its menu listed every one of the worlds of YGGDRASIL, excepting Midgard and Helheim. Even Vanaheim was listed, as well as every other world to which he had staked a claim, including the arboreal and zoological preservation worlds, and planet Momonga, as such. Quite a list. Thrilled with his new toy, Ainz did not notice that the Brightness Dragon Lord had vanished._

 _He later remonstrated with himself for being an "easy sell" for complex plans that seemed organized and well thought out. He felt he had to trust in his subordinates to do the right thing, with such a gigantic task, while he felt relegated to the petty purpose of just keeping his party from getting out of hand. Great, they get to remake an entire world, and I get to be an emcee._


	12. Chapter 12

_Probably the least interesting part of the anniversary for Ainz was being expected to make an appearance at all the major events, to say a few words, get accolades and cheering, then to move on so as to not be a distraction. For the younger, more enthusiastic crowds, Pandora's Actor fit right in, and seemed to enjoy himself as much as they liked his more flamboyant version of Ainz. But on either side, his bodyguards-handlers were there to insure he didn't overdo it too much._

 _Ainz and Albedo had fretted for years how best the royal ball that culminated the 10,00_ 0th celebration could be carried out. To begin, they had a list of their first generation offspring, then the offspring of Ainz and other powerful females, who were so important in their own right that they had to be invited. But there were far too many total, meaning that many they respected and cared for, and certainly didn't want to offend, still couldn't attend. Turning it all into an exercise in diplomacy and apology.

Ainz remembered his brainstorm a long time before of providing a very big nursery so that Albedo could properly show her affection to her children, grandchildren, great grandchildren, etc., which she loved to hold and cosset until finally she had her fill of that. Since that time, Albedo was content to remain seated on her throne, and smile and wave as they bowed before her. So what they decided was that the reception line was for groups, the male led groups introduced by Sebas Tian, the female led groups by Yuri Alpha, sans gauntlets, and the others, introduced by Aureole Omega.

After this, to avoid an awkward dance pairing, Ainz would race change to his incubus form, in a formal imperial outfit for the opening ballroom dance with Albedo. Then they could both retire from the ball.

Meanwhile, before his group departed for Midgard, the Brightness Dragon Lord had _recommend that at a given time Ainz and guests travel outside of Nazarick to witness the arrival of the soul energy released from Midgard, its transit to the New World being quite rapid through space, as it began its descent in the atmosphere, resembling a meteor shower the likes of which had never been seen before. A fitting spectacle for his 10,00_ 0th _anniversary. "Go ahead and take credit for the entertainment," he said to Ainz, "because everyone will assume it was by you anyway", he said._

 _The arrival of Brightness Dragon Lord, Demiurge, Solution Epsilon and Entoma Vasilissa Zeta on Earth's Moon, inside a building with an atmosphere, either ancient or newly constructed they could not tell, was necessary because of the formidable nature of the planetary items to be used on the planet below. The Brightness Dragon Lord explained that this comprehensive process would not take long, yet proceed in a logical order. The horribly contaminated, desolate Earth would first be subjected to a geological planetary item called Tabula Rasa, which in a matter of speaking would turn the world inside out, subducting its surface to the deep, fiery underground, then covering its surface with lava and vaporizing its oceans, all in the course of a hour. For a time the amount of energy expended made the Earth shine like a star, forcing some of them to shield their eyes from the brilliant light._

 _The second planetary item was called Geologic. It would accelerate geological time, cooling the ground, condensing the atmosphere, and creating sedimentary and metamorphic rock, as well as forming concentrations of minerals and metals beneath the surface and decaying newly exposed radioactive minerals to safer levels. Once again the surface became visible, with new oceans and continents._

 _The third planetary item was called Vegetable. It began with archaea and anaerobic bacteria, to strip the atmosphere of iron that would prevent the formation of atmospheric oxygen, and the fixation of a lot of atmospheric nitrogen which would precipitate to the ground and water. This was followed with the deployment of Solution Epsilon's planetary maintenance team. Rocky continents had several feet of surface rock pulverized by powerful slimes in an ever growing wave, then a second wave would impregnate the ground with soil bacteria, and finally plant seed just beneath the surface as well as bring back long extinct native vegetation. He explained that this was during a deceleration phase of time acceleration, so while seeming to take just a few minutes from their Lunar vantage point, to the slimes on the surface, they would be working for many eons. The greening of the lands seemed to happen in a flash._

 _The fourth planetary item was called Stability. Such disorder in the flow of time needed to this point made the world a somewhat chaotic place within time itself. Unchecked it could tear the world apart, so needed to be normalized to prevent disaster. While other accelerations to time were still needed, they were far less powerful, amounting to just tens of thousands of years over limited areas. At this point Entoma's entomancer company and their insects deployed choreographed tsunamis of different insects, going hand in hand with the sewing of flowering plants, because of their mutual reliance. The end result was the grandeur Earth had known in its prime, of verdant land and dominant oceans and icecaps._

 _The fifth planetary item was called Animal, a profoundly powerful resurrection item. If a species had ever lived on Earth, it lived again. Beginning with the oceans, and spreading to the land, except for intelligent creatures. Many species again promptly died out, for they were the also-rans of evolution, face to face with their dominant competitors._

 _Even the Brightness Dragon Lord was impressed with the end result of a blue world. Demiurge and the others were beside themselves, and wished to visit the surface of Midgard immediately. "Be on your guard", the Dragon Lord said, because such creation almost invariably creates a multitude of very dangerous monsters of all varieties. Yet when they arrived, they were still impressed, if not scared, by the sight of some giant monster killing and consuming a huge and menacing, recently resurrected predatory dinosaur. Before this world can be populated, these monsters must either be tamed or exterminated, Demiurge said. And that is a job, a challenge for those races skilled in this. The slimes were enthusiastically ready to return to perform this job, but were denied because of time constraints._

 _The last planetary item seemed small and unimpressive in comparison, but Brightness Dragon Lord assured them that it was the most important, whose power rivaled or even exceeded the other items. Having witnessed what had transpired in such a short time, Demiurge was apprehensive, to say the least. But he assured them that if anything, they should feel amazed, not threatened. He then activated the planetary item. It was called Ouroboros._

 _The dragon, or worm, Ouroboros was summoned by the planetary item. Immense in length it encircled all of Midgard at the equator and then appeared to bite the end of its own tail. And then it seemed to sink into the ground below, leaving no trace on the surface. "He is the patron dragon of Midgard. In a manner of speaking, it is his world. He stabilizes its time, space, and magic, and holds great sway over life and death. The former tenants of Midgard managed to despoil the place and offend him so much that he left. It was the beginning of their end."_

 _._

 _"_ _But now, time is of the essence, so I will give you ladies and gentleman a quick tour of the worlds of great importance to your master. Please listen carefully, as the details of this will be vital to him. And while your ship is fast, we will use apex gate to move much faster. Then, as he activated it, the world of Midgard vanished and another world appeared beneath._

 _"_ _This is Niflheim, the world of ice, fog and mist. And life itself. It is protected by its patron the huge dragon Nidhug, that looks like an immense standing eagle with a single eye, that can only be seen by the most gifted of seers. He claims the awareness of all beings that die, which pass through him and are distilled before descending to the great well of Hvergelmir, where that awareness is again gifted with soul energy, to reenter the realm of the living. It is vital that your master protect this world." Then, by activating his ring, the ship again transited to another world in the blink of an eye._

 _"_ _This is the land of fire, Muspelheim. It is like the_ 7th _floor of Nazarick, is inimical to most other life, and so I will request of Emperor Ainz that he name you, Demiurge, as the Prince of this world, one that you and your subordinate Evil Lords and fire-slime Guren can use for your entertainment when not otherwise occupied. Unlike your_ 7th _floor, there are many fire creatures that dwell within this world who can be of great value to your Lord if brought under your sway." Demiurge was speechless, overwhelmed with the prospect of being afforded a royal tile, normally reserved for the direct descent of Ainz. Without further delay, the Dragon Lord activated the apex gate and a different world appeared below._

 _"_ _Next is the realm of gods, Asgard. Because of its two treasures, Einherjer, where the violent spirits of warriors who died in great anger and hate, can battle endlessly until such emotions have been used up; and Folkvangr, for warriors whose spirits were at peace when they died, so they can meet their enemy not in conflict but in feast, friendship and camaraderie. The existence of such places and their promise will do much to ensure peace in the Empire. I will request of Emperor Ainz that Shalltear Bloodfallen be the princess of this realm, for several reasons._

 _"_ _Her normal self will play hostess to the spirits and visitors of Folkvangr, while her avatar Einherjer shall officiate over the great stadium in Einherjer and its audience, where the daily wars takes place. So she will have the dual role of goddess of entertainment and celebration, and goddess of brutality and mindless rage in war. And since the number of enraged and hate filled warriors will diminish at times, the stadium can also be used by Lord Cocytus, to host sports competitions for all of the realm to witness. It may become a premier tourism destination."_

 _Shortly thereafter, the Brightness Dragon Lord introduced the land of the giants, Jotunheim. Properly speaking, a world that causes giantism after just a few generations. "I will leave it up to Emperor Ainz as to what to do with it. However, it is a valuable world with a close connection to Midgard, and it also contains Mimir's well of wisdom, of which he may find great value." And then he gated them away to the next world._

 _Alfheim, the world of the Light Elves. In the ancient past, they were the homeworld of a small empire of Elves, and their descendants on the New World were the Dark and Wood Elves, though their spacefarers colonized many other worlds as well. But their leaders realized that industrialization was harming Alfheim, so all at once they abandoned their colonies and this technology, and again embraced their Nature Magic to heal the damage they had caused. Their gambit worked and by doing so, their world was among those of YGGDRASIL that were spared and retained its people. "With some diplomacy by Emperor Ainz, there might be a peaceful reunification of Elven peoples here and on other worlds that could be very beneficial to the Empire."_

 _Next they visited Svartalfheim, the land of the dwarves. "I'm sure that Emperor Ainz, with his interest in runes, will want to discuss them at length with these dwarves. They have developed and improved on the original 90, so that today their runes number in the hundreds, and are much more practical than just for weapons. Their metalworking is so elaborate and artistic that warriors have refused to fight each other lest they damage the others fine armor."_

 _In a flash, they were in orbit around the cloaked world of Vanaheim, the world of the Old Gods. At that moment, the Brightness Dragon Lord drew them together, and said, "This world, by far, will be of the greatest interest to your Emperor. This is because if you know where to look you will discover close to a complete complement of guild bases, including an exact replica of Nazarick on planet Momonga."_

 _"_ _And there is more, so very much more, but I cannot speak of it any further. But I ask of you to tell your Emperor everything you have heard and seen, when the opportunity presents itself. Yet we must hie back to Momonga, where great things are now unfolding."_

 _Stretching from deep space to Momonga was a radiant, multicolored band of concentrated soul energy, pouring into the atmosphere of the planet. As it reached various atmospheric layers it would divide and divide again until it finally blanketed the ground in a glowing hue. Forming a luminous plasma like St. Elmo's fire, it harmlessly danced around living things: trees, animals, plants, and people. And sometimes it would form slow moving balls of light, like ball lightning. Oddly enough, it was neither attracted or repelled by positive or negative energy, but acted randomly, yet always sought the ground or water. And indeed, for those standing on the ground it appeared as though every part of the sky and the land was illuminated with shooting stars and fireworks._

 _At the great celebration, the animate suits of armor guided by remote control by dragons from afar suddenly collapsed, for as the soul energy passed through the ground and was filtered by it, it was drawn to and emerged directly beneath every dragon wherever they were. Some of the younger ones were so overcome they collapsed, and lay convulsing on the floor until their bodies had distilled as much of that energy into their personal supply of wild magic as they could abide, and could do no more. Larger and older dragons consumed vastly greater amounts, producing undreamed of amounts of wild magic. But who can drink a river?_

 _The soul energy they could not consume filled planet Momonga to the brim, creating vast underground invisible oceans of soul energy. And for some time thereafter, all beings which had mana had it more than proportionately increase by many times. That is, a being with an MP of 1 might grow to have an MP of 8. But Albedo, with an MP of 35 soon had an MP of 500. Ainz, who already exceeded the limit, had an astronomical MP. The entire planet Momonga had become strongly magical, as had every being that dwelled on it, to the extent they could._

 _And finally the condition had been reached for the appearance of the Dragon God._

 _Ainz was prepared as he could be, the Brightness Dragon Lord having given him etiquette lessons with the intensity of a school tutor preparing a student for the hardest of exams. At the appointed hour, with crowds of guests still leaving Nazarick after the celebration, the two of them retired to Ainz' bedchamber, with orders to Empress Albedo and all the others to steer clear of it at all costs, and began the complex ritual that would be the official invitation for the Dragon Lord to appear._

 _The moment it ended, the room disappeared, and in its place they were standing on a platform on the side of an impossibly steep mountain. Before them, higher than the sky and lower than the darkness below, the Dragon God towered. His head bent down to gaze at them face to face and then he transformed, like a spark, into the appearance of a young, androgynous human child, standing with them. And then the three of them were returned to the bedchamber._

 _"_ _Any suspicions dispelled?," the Dragon God asked, to which Ainz nodded his head. "Then, with respect to the formal ritual (he glanced at the Brightness Dragon Lord, who briefly flashed the lightest of smiles), "I will return the favor and extend my greetings to Overlord-Emperor Ainz Ooal Gown of YGGDRASIL."_

 _Ainz was a bit taken aback at the title, before realizing how accurate it was. He was indeed the Emperor of the reborn YGGDRASIL._

 _The Dragon God continued. "The old analogy of a tree was accurate. Your daughters, the princesses, are the three great roots of the tree, your children are the sapwood, and you are the heartwood that strengthens the trunk and supports the whole tree. The nine worlds are the major branches of the tree, and each has secondary branches that support all the other worlds that are the tree's leaves."_

 _"_ _One of the roots leads to the well Hvergelmir on the planet Niflheim. Another to the well Uroarbrunnr, under the roots of the tree, next to the tap root that goes to Midgard, which is the soil beneath the tree, called Earth. And here also is the home of the princesses, called the Norns. And the third root goes to the well Mímisbrunnr in Jotunheim. Of course there are many secondary roots as well."_

 _Unlike the original YGGDRASIL, which had only nine worlds, your new YGGDRASIL may have hundreds, but these nine, and your imperial capital world of Momonga, for a total number of ten, are the core to a vastly expanded version._

 _Ainz knew from his briefing that he would be able to ask the Dragon God for two powerful, even reality altering wishes, after he had been given two different gifts that the Dragon God would bestow on him, that were his choice to accept or reject. This had occupied his mind ever since._

 _For the first gift I would bestow on you, said the Dragon God, it is necessary for us to travel a bit. And for reasons that will soon be obvious, you cannot take your normal guardian bodyguards with you. But it is right and proper for your august station that you have a trusted entourage. For this reason I have brought back, and enhanced, some of those who in the past you held with some regard._

 _"_ _This is not part of either of the gifts I intend to give, but again, out of gratitude for the respect you demonstrated by performing the formal ritual, something near and dear to my heart."_

 _Out of the shadows came four powerful looking adventurers. Something about them looked vaguely familiar, but wrong. He first associated their specialties: a swordsman, a druid, a ranger, and a female caster, with different costumes, but all carrying outsized swords. Large, black swords filled with magic. He almost made the association when their leader spoke. "Lord Ainz, we are your Swords of Darkness."_

 _Ainz being utterly perplexed, the Dragon God explained that he had found them in a different time line from this one, where they had adventured with Ainz for years as the comrades of him and Narberal Gamma, eventually becoming very loyal servants to him as Lord Ainz. "But even with these fine swords given to us, our weakness as such, meant that there was little to do other than be ceremonial bodyguards, so you granted us your leave to retire, albeit considerably wealthier. And in our good time, we died. But when given the opportunity to live again, in our prime, with enhanced powers to serve you, my Lord, we each accepted without question._

 _Then out of the shadows came others, each in turn promising loyalty to Overlord-Emperor Ainz Ooal Gown. Some faces far more recognizable than others. The last to appear was the human maid and wife of Sebas Tian, Tuareninya Veyron, still wearing her Nazarick maid's outfit, though a quick glance told Ainz that she was no longer human, but Dragonoid, bearing the human appearance she held when alive. As the ensemble prepared to go, to an unknown destination, Ainz wondered how she had persuaded the Dragon God to give her that race change, though her motive was obvious._

 _"_ _But it is time for us to go," said the Dragon God. "For we need to be off to Vanaheim."_


	13. Chapter 13

_The trip to Vanaheim was quick, but the orbit around the world dragged on and on as Ainz, the Brightness Dragon Lord, and the Dragon God went into the tremendous details involved in the gifts and wishes to be bestowed on Ainz. This pleased the Dragon God immensely, as he appreciated a well thought out plan. He especially liked that Ainz' wishes, tempered by the Brightness Dragon Lords suggestions and advice were unintentionally very complementary to the gifts he intended to give._

 _Eventually they went directly from the ship to the_ 10th _Floor Throne Room of the Vanaheim version of the Great Tomb of Nazarick. "Greetings, Lord Momonga", said Albedo. With shock, Ainz realized that this was not his wife, Empress Albedo, but a version of her as when she had first gained awareness. So he had to know. There was no warmth or loving recognition from her. "Albedo," he asked, "How do you feel about me?"_

 _"_ _You are Lord Momonga, the guild master of Ainz Ooal Gown, my lord, and I offer my unreserved loyalty to you and the other Supreme Beings", she replied._

 _Ainz suddenly realized that this was a version of Albedo that had not been modified by him, yet was still aware, awake, intelligent and able to learn. But before he could think anything else, he realized that Albedo was either unaware of, or was ignoring the dragons if not the entourage with him. And then she dropped the bomb, by saying, "Message: My Lord, the other Supreme Beings await your presence at the_ 9th _Floor Round Table."_

 _Ainz was not actually aware that he had given his assent, but Albedo then contacted Aureole Omega to create a gate transfer to take them all to_ the 9th _Floor. When the doors to the Round Table opened, Ainz was floored by seeing the entire table filled with his guild mates. Only one chair, his, was empty. "Momonga, you're late!", yelled out Touch Me. Before he could even react, "10,000 years late!", shouted Ulbert. Then they all rose in a laughing, standing ovation. Ainz was speechless and in awe._

 _Touch Me took to the floor to explain that while they had only been recently resurrected, how in the process they were given innumerable answers: what had happened to them, their world, and what had happened to Momonga in his world since then. "And, how your actions are responsible for our living again, in this glorious place, and in this magnificent time."_

 _Ulbert interjected at that point, feeling a need to urgently apologize, that in their time nobody thought to tell you the code you needed to say to Albedo to shut down our ultimate weapons, and all of the other destructive processes, since we knew that the game was ending soon, so it wouldn't matter. Of course we had no idea that they would become a real menace in a different world in the far future. So once again, our apologies, Momonga. Or I suppose, we should call you Ainz._

 _We remembered something Peroroncino said he had heard in one of his h-games, of a really stupid and lewd pick up line, and thought it was hilarious that you would have to say it to Albedo to deactivate the weapons, since you were always so morally upright. Then he told it to Ainz, who was indeed mortified that he would still have to say that to her. To the Empress. His wife. And then he thought in horror, and asked, what about all the other iterations of Albedo? Will I have to tell this to every one of them?_

 _Well, said Ulbert, "I guess you had better play it safe", before grinning an evil grin that only a heteromorphic goat monster might grin. Ainz then felt an uncomfortable few seconds pass, before Touch Me asserted that Ainz only had to do this once, to "his" Albedo. The rest are safe._

 _In any event, the reason we never invoked these weapons was because we learned that the world was literally coming to an end within days, the irrevocable end of life on Earth, so why wreak vengeance? None of us suspected that you never watched the news, that you didn't know, and we figured you just wanted to die while in the game. At that point, HeroHero and a few others volunteered that they didn't know, either, and that they with vast numbers of other people were doing their normal stupid and mindless things when the world ended._

 _So why bother with revenge?, Ulbert continued. We didn't know about the scheme of these villains to transfer thousands of people just from their families to the New World, using the stolen magic stored in the magic capacitors secretly wired to the YGGDRASIL computers, that even its own game devs didn't know about. So they weren't content with destroying their own world, they wanted to conquer and destroy another one. And yes, there was still more than a little bitterness in his voice. Had they done that before the shutdown was announced, it would have likely killed everyone in the game in the process, and they didn't care at all._

 _And for all their villainy, none of these fools even cared enough about the game to know that it was scheduled for shut down just ahead of the execution of their scheme. And you were the last person in Nazarick, when all that magic imbued data, and you, were snapped back to the New World, also spewing magic and a handful of other players hither and yon to many worlds, even through time, and blowing out the YGGDRASIL magic capacitors. So you lived, but the villains and their families, and we and our families, and everyone else on Earth then died. "Of greed and stupidity", he concluded, before slumping into his chair with a scowl._

 _And while no one there seemed to be aware of the presence of dragons in human form standing behind him, the Dragon God whispered to Ainz, that "these people, your friends, and their families are my first gift to you." Ainz' initial reaction was one of confusion, as he had been contemplating something like this as a wish, not expecting it as a gift, though as a gift it had been designed much better and more comprehensively than what he could have asked for._

 _He had been somewhat surprised a while before, in talking with the Brightness Dragon Lord, when he mused that were he able, he would make each of his guild mates kings, each in their own Nazarick and in a world they could design to their taste. But the Dragon Lord assured him this was well within the powers of the Dragon God. "And he'll throw in a whole complement of conscious NPCs as well. If they want kingdoms and lands full of living beings, of every kind, they are for the asking. They will be as real as those in your world are to you."_

 _Well, technically you would be asking for all of this on behalf of your friends, not directly, he added._

 _Oh, and be sure to let your friends know they can personally race change. Though it's probably good that they go from avatar form to human form and back until they get used to it and try other races. I felt a little guilty taking you from skeleton to incubus race the first time. It looked quite painful."_

 _Well yes, it had hurt like hell, thought Ainz, before remembering the profound upside that had happened right after for the next few days, which took away a lot of the sting, as it were._

 _"_ _Oh, and before you even ask, those the Dragon God resurrects are automatically given limited immortality, like you. If killed, they lossless respawn. So guilt free," said the Dragon Lord. Ainz grumbled under his breath something about, Oh, so now you tell me!_

 _And while you're thinking about it, you remember all the other Guild Bases in Vanaheim? Each of them has a full complement of resurrected players and NPCs of those guilds as well, so it will be a good idea to figure them into your calculations. They know you as the big boss, so won't fight you if you want to move them around. You can transfer them hither and yon as you so desire. I would recommend keeping this Nazarick as a place to hold group meetings to keep in touch, strategize and relax with your friends, however. Otherwise, Vanaheim remains as it was, the hidden world of the Old Gods, protected by magic, a place all of those from your world return to, finding a new life if they no longer enjoy their circumstances._

 _Ainz figured that his guild mates and the other players could design worlds and dungeons from easy to brain-wrenching-insane degree of difficulty. He almost shuddered when he thought of what the the evil based world built by Ulbert, or the horror movie based world that would be created by Tabula Smaragdina would be like. Definitely only for high level mature players guilds with a strong psyche and stomach. When he later visited them, he felt the whole planets were like mass attack dungeons filled with incredible monsters. Brutal and grotesque. An almost unconquerable prize for the best players ever. Then his thoughts trailed away about what kind of team he would have to assemble to beat them, and what the heck prize would somebody win for beating it?_

 _Bukubukuchagama, on the other hand, with the new adoring iterations of young Aura and Mare in tow, admitted to Ainz that she was tired of being a slime, and was wondering if she would make a good Elf Queen, which he thought was a splendid idea, making her Queen of Alfheim and All Elves, Queen "Kazeumi Kumi", her favorite stage name. But before she race changed, Ainz insisted that she and HeroHero had to check out the slime palace on planet Momonga, where they both still had cult followings._

 _Oh, and importantly, to let him know ahead of time before introducing Aura and Mare to other elves, before explaining there probably wasn't an elf outside of Alfheim that wouldn't lose their marbles on seeing the return of their great Queen and King. She thought that their being Queen and King of the Elf Kingdom was cute, imagining them as the children there were now. Ainz refrained from telling her, knowing of the elf hordes that idolized them as great leaders._

 _The most touching of the player meetings began with Ainz providing Touch Me one of Sebas Tian's suits prior to his race change to his human form. As expected, he looked just like a slightly older version of Sebas. In another room, Ainz had arranged for the resurrected and older adventurer Ninya and the resurrected and now dragonoid young Tuareninya Veyron, the late beloved wife of Momonga's Sebas Tian, in her human form. The two sisters had an extended and teary reunion._

 _Then human Touch Me entered the meeting lounge with his human wife and children, at the same time as the sisters came in, and he was open jawed because the beautiful Tuareninya looked almost identical to his wife at a younger age. And then Momonga's Sebas Tian entered the room to discover his late wife alive. And this version of Sebas unashamedly cried and sobbed while hugging her, and continued to do so even after she offered him a handkerchief to dry his tears of joy. "And now, my husband, I am like you, so we can finally have the children we wanted all those years." Touch Me's wife and Ninya were crying as well, though his human children looked somewhat clueless, so Ainz figured his work here was done as he quietly took his leave._

 _After Ainz made his first wish, in retrospect, he wondered if he had been steered into this wish decision, or if it was so obvious that he couldn't but help reach it. But it was one hell of a wish._

 _"_ _To create a Galactic Dive Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game called YGGDRASIL II."_

 _Both the Brightness Dragon Lord and the Dragon God were fascinated like they had never been before. The idea was to turn much of his empire into physical-virtual reality entertainment for innumerable alien players. Much like the original game, it was focused on exploration and discovery to learn its secrets, with a strong emphasis on customization._

 _The technology to accomplish all of this in real time, over vast distances of space, required even the Dragon God to subcontract much of it. Interfaces for millions of different intelligent species, plugged in to planetoid nodes scattered throughout known space, leading to planet sized computers connected in parallel and all leading to YGGDRASIL II, in the Momon star system._

 _All of it to give real time, roughly similar experiences to billions of intelligent beings at the same time. Once their interface was activated, they would feel like they were physically present in an immense tutorial, in their real body, with a guide of their own species to take them through the steps to register, create their avatar, the general rules of game play, the formation of clans and guilds, and many other things; then to offer them third person simulations of game play, exploration, conflict that may or may not be voluntary, what would happen if they were killed, and had to respawn, etc. And then, as with the original game, to unceremoniously put them in a world of their choice, with a strong recommendation for a beginner level world for those with levels under 10._

 _Behind the scenes, things were far more chaotic. Thousands of empires wanted in on the deal, especially as dev contributors to submit their own adventures, awe inspiring discoveries, amazing monsters and NPC designs, as well as technological, magical and monetary prizes. There was a "land rush" for unclaimed star systems in "frontier" areas outside the perimeter of the Empire's space for all kinds of reasons. Some of these empires were strong enough to move unused star systems vast distances through the frontier there just for the purpose._

 _The normally staid diplomats of the_ _Obarodono were beside themselves with the deluge of requests for official involvement with the project, creating a strong conflict of interest, as their leaders also wanted to be deeply involved. It was about then they realized they had made a tremendous blunder by giving away their "obsolete" Research Master Archive and its treasure trove of planetary data to Ainz without a second thought. Data that could be entered into the real-virtual computer planets, vastly expanding the scale of the game. Way beyond the capability of Ainz' empire, other empires provided armies of tech support and admins that could deal with that ridiculous amount of data and reasonably quickly._

 _They could also handle the technology for software upgrades, language support, magic support, filters, skins and overlays, user tech support, and lots and lots of instructional materials._

 _Many Obarodono were now as familiar with the diplomatic enclave on the island of Underside that had been the diplomatic compound where they first met the Overlord-Emperor of Momonga, as they were with their own homes. It was a very busy place, though at times some of them had to remind themselves that commerce can be diplomacy, too, even though it seemed like they were employees of YGGDRASIL II. Ainz saved a lot of time by utilizing their diplomatic services to approach the guilds on Vanaheim, and appreciated how rapidly they were able to give those players useful information and a multitude of choices._

 _Staying at their guild base on Vanaheim was a lesser choice when offered their own guild world with a new, custom built guild base, a world they could tailor make either as an independent world in the empire, or part of YGGDRASIL II. As gamers, with many versed in history, and military history, they made many legendary worlds, letting their imaginations run free._

 _The Kitty Kingdom guild created a feline based world that many aliens found fascinating. An empire where all intelligent beings were felines. Great interest especially from those empires evolved from felines rather than other species, as to how convergent evolution created so many felines with very different genes._

 _Many players chose to physically move to and colonize New Earth. After meeting the superior humans of planet Momonga, physically, intellectually and emotionally evolved, few opted to stay there. Some even decided to live by themselves or in small groups on one of the lush preserve planets and enjoy nature they had never experienced, at least for a few centuries. In this case, they were given continents away from those used to protect the primatives transplanted there from the Island of Papura to protect them._

 _The solace of the Obarodono was that YGGDRASIL II seemed to be pumping new vitality into the known galaxy. As in addition to the practical limits of administration, there was also the problem that once an empire was "fenced in" on all sides, it tended to lose its desire to grow, evolve, and discover new things, slowly decaying from the inside. Regaining its sense of adventure, discovery, and innovation revitalized them in many ways. After experiencing exploration in the game, some of the empires decided to once again explore frontier space, just out of renewed curiosity. The World Searcher guild became the mascots for this, as their enthusiasm for exploration and discovery was infectious, and having one on board ship could inspire other explorers to go many times further than they would have otherwise._

 _It wasn't long before problems, or rather opportunities, developed. Increasing demands for safe children's alternative worlds resulted in spinoff local game worlds run under the YGGDRASIL II umbrella but under local control in other empires territories. Ridiculously lucrative, Ainz was still more than happy to not have the headache of tending to other creature's offspring. It also paid off for poorer empires that had a gift for nuturing young._

 _Beta testing in YGGDRASIL II proved beyond any doubt that a rating system was essential. They tried very hard to limit the leveling system to 5000, across around 500 worlds, because just two levels above a player's rating was almost certain game death. But players were insatiable about leveling and achievement._

 _The Gachapon Cash Item Store could take weeks to peruse, and soon had a small scandal of an investigation of players using it to launder cash from criminal enterprises, which instead turned out to be professional shoppers buying for players too busy playing to shop. Ainz still remembered spending too much on cash items, so tried to influence things to keep prices low. Not easy when some players were wealthy enough to buy out particular items just so they would have a monopoly on them._

 _And empires needed to set species based player time limits to prevent players from IRL injuring themselves by not tending to their physical needs._

 _Very soon, it became obvious that players who were invested in too much violence, bloodshed, warfare and PK'ing, needed a timeout-burnout so that when they were killed, they would instead respawn in Einherjer on Asgard. Where, under the watchful if sadistic gaze of Shalltear Bloodfallen's Einherjer, they would have to brutally kill and be killed, over and over again, without leveling up or gaining or losing anything else, until they had gotten it out of their system, so could return to normal game play in a less aggressive manner._

 _Of course, with so many beings entering the game worlds of the Empire, there were times when even parts of the real-virtual worlds seemed overcrowded. Yet the Obarodono had a simple solution, of engineering a purely virtual version of YGGDRASIL II in the world of dreams. This meant that poorer beings who were stretched to afford real-virtual game play could get it for free, several weeks worth for just a few minutes of real time. The biggest downside was that instead of being in the first person, you would sometimes be in the third person mode, and at a lower what could be called resolution. Plus remembering what you had done took a lot of discipline. Discreetly, Ainz used some of the huge profits from the game to both subsidize the dream engineers and to provide tight security by dream casters against any monsters wanting to feed on visitors. The dream version also served as a great test bed for expansion packs, skins and other game mods._

 _Many years before, he and Albedo had discretely visited the world of dreams incognito, as their celebrity status there required it, and were able to meet a more civil dream monster who knew some of Albedo's relatives. As ferocious as they were, Ainz found them to be rather personable. Albedo seemed to be a little embarrassed, but then boldly announced that Ainz was her husband. Their gaze at Ainz was about to become serious, for marrying one of "theirs" without permission, so without delay he showed them his true form._

 _"_ _Wait... You're that Ainz? Ainz Ooal Gown? The Overlord-Emperor Ainz Ooal Gown? Wow!"_

 _Being fawned over by dream monster fans is just like being fawned over by other fans. But from that point there probably wasn't a good enough disguise for either of them to return to the world of dreams. Yet female dream monsters thereafter had romantic fantasies about the half-dream monster succubus girl who married a handsome Overlord-Emperor, and lived happily ever after._

 _The regular operations of YGGDRASIL II, mostly delegated to those far more capable at such things, still consumed so much of Ainz' time that he started to neglect the important things, such as alone time with Albedo. And then, with great surprise, the light dawned that he had never gotten around to disarming her._

 _It had been a long time since he had felt genuine fear from her, if he said or did something that might have turned her against him. But in this case, he was rendering a bomb safe. What if the password was incorrect, ill remembered, or he said a word wrong? Could he stop Albedo and her sisters from traveling to Helheim short of destroying it or them?_

 _He couldn't help but imagine how if rendered safe, then substantially improved with major league dungeons, obstacles and traps, Helheim might be turned into an 'A' list adventure world. Maybe create, for his own entertainment as well as publicity, an exaggerated version of The Great Tomb of Nazarick there, with a multitude of floors, that was way beyond impossible to beat. An inspirational showpiece and work of art, that designers could tour with safe passes, so they wouldn't be hurt even if half scared to death._

 _In any event, Ainz decided to gamble that disarming the weapons would be straightforward. Meeting Albedo in a blast resistant corridor in the Nazarick on Momonga, he spoke the code phrase that would render all the weapons safe. For a few seconds she stared off into the distance, before saying, in a strange mechanical voice: Ragnarok deactivated. Then she returned to normal, blushed and said to Ainz that she was hoping he might ask her that some day, and her answer was yes. And then she began pulling him towards the bedchamber. Okay, I was not expecting this, he said to himself._

 _Some time later, when the day was winding down and the sun was setting, the Dragon God made an appearance, and seemed to be in an excitable mood. "Ainz! There is something happening that I've never seen before. It's amazing, you have to see it!"_

 _He pointed out at the twilight horizon and said, look in that direction. Then he made some hand gestures, and Ainz saw an immense tree, a real, living tree, reaching up into the sky, its height reaching to infinity. He could see the roots at its base, its immense trunk, branches and leaves._

 _"_ _This is the tree Yggdrasil, in the peak of health. As it looks to those that can see it. But look at the leaves closer. Tell me, what do you see?" Ainz pondered that and gazed more attentively._

 _"_ _Flowers?"_

 _"_ _Exactly!", said the Dragon God. "Never before has the tree Yggdrasil had flowers! Never before has it been so healthy that it has blossomed. More importantly, every feature of the tree is reflected in reality. Each feature creates reality. So what are all those flowers creating right now?"_

 _"_ _I don't know," replied Ainz. "What are they creating?"_

 _"_ _I have no idea", said the Dragon God._

 _Ainz gazed in wonder at the tree Yggdrasil, before saying almost absentmindedly, "But don't flowers attract bees?" He felt silly for saying that._

 _Suddenly the Dragon God became serious, and even frowned. Without even looking at Ainz, he said, "Please excuse me. There is something very important I have to do. Give my apologies to the Brightness Dragon Lord, but I will be away for some time." And with that, he was gone._

 _The Brightness Dragon Lord was initially dumbfounded, speculating that the only thing that could possibly demand the Dragon God's attention was that he had to meet with his peers over something of vital importance. Only after Ainz had told him the story did he express surprise._

 _"_ _You mean, he actually allowed you to see the tree Yggdrasil?", truly shocked. "He has never let me see it!" Yes, Ainz replied. And when I stand on that place at twilight, I can still see it with great clarity. It is amazing." The Dragon Lord was taken aback. Even seeing the tree briefly was a once in a lifetime gift for such beings as him. To be allowed to gaze on it at will was unheard of._

 _But then he came to his senses, before saying "bees?" Well, if the flowers need to be fertilized, then they would create seeds, but if they are blossoms, they will produce fruit. Something like bees would be needed to cross pollinate with other trees. I know of no galactic entity that would perform such a function. Then he paused, and a look of dread crossed his face, and he said, unless those flowers would attract Navagraha, the world eater. This would explain why the Dragon God left so hurredly._

 _He explained that the first tree Yggdrasil was immature, and its leaves representing the nine worlds were attacked by Navagraha, that consumed all life on some of those worlds. Vanaheim was protected by its magical cloak, Midgard survived, as did Alfheim, but only after a brutal, no holds barred fight against the Navagraha, with horrific casualties. The other worlds were either stripped of life or were terribly damaged in the fight._

 _"_ _If it is returning, this entire region of space will be facing a galactic war. It won't be soon, but when it comes, every being, kingdom, empire, federation and beyond will have to throw every bit of their fight against it. By your leave, I must get the message out to all the other dragons in Yggdrasil." He then departed, leaving Ainz feeling very alone._

 _Later, in conference with Albedo, Demiurge, Cocytus, Shalltear, the top commanding Admirals of his space fleet, and many other seats of power, solely to compose the presentation to the guilds and others to explain the situation, Ainz recieved a message from the Nazarick admissions facilities director that a large group of very different looking, high ranking Obarodono were enroute to his meeting area. Already authorized entry to Nazarick under most circumstances, this was very unusual for Obarodono, who took polite ease and grace and never seemed rushed or hurried. At least they were courteous enough to knock before entering._

 _Into the conference room strode Obarodono half again taller than was typical, very muscular and exuding power, wearing military uniforms instead of diplomatic gear and led by a female that looked like the most exaggerated demon Ainz had ever seen. Ainz caught a glimpse of Demiurge trembling, while staring at her, but not out of fear._

 _"_ _Overlord-Emperor Ainz," she said in a booming voice, "What the hell are you doing?" Every person in the room froze at the affront._

 _"_ _Every empire and federation that occupy frontier borders in our collective sector of space are panicked because immense ships of a wide variety of unknown types have parked outside our border on all sides and are attempting to communicate. None of them speak any known language and must be from far removed parts of the galaxy. Their intent appears to be peaceful, but when the Obarodono feel it necessary to activate our military command, even we are shaken up by the possibility of unthinkable disaster._

 _"_ _Though our linguists are killing themselves to establish communications, the only two things in common that they are all saying is "Navagraha" and "Ainz Ooal Gown!" "So again, What the hell are you doing?"_

 _He replied by saying that the Navagraha are a powerful enemy that menace all of us._

 _It took him a long time to calm her down, which was not helped by her having no knowledge of the Navagraha, the Dragon God or others like him. The best guess for Ainz to make was that many beings in the galaxy hated the Navagraha, and were more than willing to immediately contribute incredibe weapons and forces to join with us in fighting them, for once being able to predict their attack before it came._

 _So let your diplomats talk to them, once communications are established. The more we know of the enemy before they arrive, the better we will be able to fight them. As communications started coming in to the great female Obarodono, that seemed to confirm what Ainz had said, she relaxed somewhat, but still requested some accommodations in Nazarick for herself and her staff until a clearer picture emerged, which he offered._

 _As the meeting started to break up, with preliminary orders going out, Demiurge approached Ainz and asked him how extensive planning would need to be before this great conflict. Perhaps with some amount of mischief, Ainz replied that it could be tomorrow, or in a hundred thousand years, so it would all have to become part of my "100,000 year plan." Their was some mischief in his voice._

 _The glint in Demiurge's eyes was such that Ainz quickly dropped the other shoe, by asking him to act as the escort to the great female Obarodono. "Their females find you very attractive, and judging by how you reacted when meeting this superior female, you likely feel the same._ Maybe offer to take her on a tour of the 7th _floor, if she's amenable."_

 _Late at night, enjoying some quiet time next to Albedo, his Albedo, Ainz pondered the communiques from his future self. Very cautious about endangering time, his messages were oblique, even though he clearly wanted to warn himself in the past. His technique was to use a combination of ancient quotations intersperced with poetic quatrains, to answer two basic questions, of what needed to be done, and when it should be done. One of the most fitting quotations was by Sun Tzu._

 _"_ _If you know the enemy and know yourself, you need not fear the result of a hundred battles. If you know yourself but not the enemy, for every victory gained you will also suffer a defeat. If you know neither the enemy nor yourself, you will succumb in every battle."_

 _With this he resolved to gather and understand every bit of information about the enemy Navagraha, be it one great thing, several things, or a multitude, then to gather together every tool imaginable to beat it, and to train every being willing and able to fight, with YGGDRASIL II, to their peak performance._

 _Everything we have ever done. Every type of training. Every battle fought has led to this, thought Ainz, even if it does take a hundred thousand years._


End file.
